


A Light in the Dark (Bucky Barnes)

by ravenclawgirl98



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 23,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28153599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenclawgirl98/pseuds/ravenclawgirl98
Summary: Anna Gregory was a captive of HYDRA, one of their little experiments. She has the ability to morph into any person she's seen, and they've used that power for their own devices. When a certain Winter Soldier saves her and brings her to the Avengers Compound, he shows her that humanity still has some goodness left in them. Will Anna be able to come out of her shell and trust people again? Her life has been filled with darkness, but now she just might have found her light in the the dark.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

Anna shivered as she brought her knees up to her chest, rubbing her arms as she tried to keep herself warm in the cold, dank cell that HYDRA kept her in. Bruises covered the small woman's body, with the most prominent ones being on her face. Coughs wracked her frame, she needed a doctor and medicine, but none would be brought to her, not until she 'complied'.

Anna had been fighting her captors for the past few years now, she wasn't even sure how much time had passed, it could be ten years, or five, she didn't know, she had no windows, there was no set time when her food was brought to her, she had no way of telling how time passed. Every waking second she spent fighting against the people that tried to use her. She had been complacent at first, thinking that would affect how they treated her, but when it was shown that they would mistreat her no matter what she did, that was when she started to fight against them. She kept looking for ways to escape, finding none. After they had lost the Winter Soldier, HYDRA had become extraordinarily more careful, and had tightened their security tremendously.

Anna could hear shouting outside of her cell, and she slowly stood up, groaning as she placed a hand on her side; she was certain that she had at least a cracked rib, possibly something worse than that. What was going on? The voices of her guards were panicked, gunshots echoed off the walls.

Suddenly the door to her cell was ripped off of its hinges, and Anna gasped, retreating into the darkest corner of the room. Two men entered the room, and one of them started to advance upon her.

"Steve, hold up." The other man held him back. "She looks terrified." He slowly walked towards her, he had long brown hair, and a metal arm that had a red star on it. "It's okay, we aren't going to hurt you." He spoke in a quiet tone, trying not to startle her too much. "We came to rescue you, my name's Bucky."

"You're the Winter Soldier..." Anna whispered, and she thought that his jaw tightened a little bit. "I used to be, but that isn't who I am anymore, I'm not under their control any longer." He stretched a hand out towards her. "What do you say that we get you out of here?"

Something inside of Anna told her that she could trust him. Besides, anything was better than staying here, wasn't it? Anna slowly walked forward, her petite hand slowly slipping into his larger one. She bit back a groan as she moved the wrong way, but Bucky had noticed the way her face had contorted in pain.

"You're hurt." He carefully scooped her into his arms. "Steve, cover me."

Anna wrapped her arms around his neck as they ran out. Guards shot at them, and Anna whimpered and held on tighter to Bucky as Steve deflected the bullets with his shield.

There was a jet waiting outside.

"Nat, get us out of here!" Steve shouted to a redhaired woman who was in the pilot's seat.

"Hold on to your butts." Natasha responded before the jet pulled off into the sky. "I also radioed the compound, Bruce is going to be waiting for us when we get there with a stretcher."

Bucky nodded as he carefully set Anna down in a seat. "You're safe now, HYDRA won't be able to ever touch you again."

"Thank you." Anna whispered, coughing again as he wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. "How...how did you even find me?"

"A HYDRA defector." Steve answered. "He came to us, told us that there was a woman being experimented on in one of the compounds."

Anna didn't know who this defector was, but if she ever met him, she would have to give him her thanks, she honestly didn't know how much longer she would have lasted in their.

"Do you have any powers?" Bucky asked her gently. "Did they inject you with any serums?"

"They injected me with a few of them." Anna responded. "Only one of them kicked in. I gained the ability to morph into any person. Basically if I've seen them, I can turn into them." As though to prove herself, she morphed her face into Steve's for a brief moment before changing back into her own face. "They would use me to get into high end societal events, usually it ended with someone being dead."

"Well, they won't be able to use her anymore." Bucky assured her. "No one is going to be able to use you ever again, not if I have anything to say about it. Now, try and get some rest, alright? It'll be a while before we get back."

Anna nodded, and she wrapped the blanket tighter around herself before closing her eyes, almost immediately falling into a deep, dreamless slumber. She was finally free, she was finally safe.


	2. Chapter 2

Anna woke up as they approached the Compound. She yawned, wiping the sleep from her eyes. "Are we here?"

Bucky nodded. "Yeah, we're here. Do you need help or can you walk?"

"I'd like to try to walk if that's okay."

Bucky nodded his head again. "Just don't try and push yourself too much, okay?"

Anna slowly stood up, biting back a wince as a jolt of pain shot up her side. She began to walk forward, leaning against the wall for support.

"Are you sure that you don't want me to carry you?" Bucky asked her, his blue eyes filled with concern as he watched her walk, he didn't want her to fall or anything.

"I'm fine." The pain had increased, but Anna didn't want to feel like she was completely helpless. She walked a few more steps before stopping, the pain now showing on her pale face. Without another word, Bucky walked over to her, lifting her into his arms once more.

"I could get used to this." Bucky said flirtatiously, and Anna flushed a bit, stammering out a response. Bucky chuckled softly before carrying her out of the jet. A dark haired man was waiting with a stretcher, and Anna realized that this must have been the Bruce that the red head had been talking about.

"I'm Dr. Banner." Bruce's tone was warm and friendly as Bucky laid Anna on the stretcher. "We're going to take care of you, alright? And nothing is going to be done to you without your permission."

Anna nodded, and she grabbed Bucky's hand as he tried to walk away so that Bruce could bring Anna inside. "Don't leave me." She whispered. She was someplace unknown, and Bucky was the only familiar thing about the place. "Please."

"I'm not going to go anywhere." Bucky assured her. "I'll be right here by your side the whole time, don't worry."

Bruce wheeled Anna inside, and she stared in awe. Everything seemed to be so technologically advanced. It was so much more...warmer than the HYDRA compound had been, so much more friendly. The whole place had a welcoming aura to it, and Anna visibly relaxed.

A blonde man was waiting inside for them. "This is the girl?"

Bruce nodded. "Yeah, this is Anna. Anna, this is Clint."

Anna gave him a small wave of her hand, and he smiled softly at her. "I'll let Tony know that she's here, tell him that our informer's information was correct. It was nice to meet you Anna, you're safe here now."

Anna knew that she would be safe here. Even though she barely knew these people, she knew that this was going to be so much better than her time in HYDRA, these people were different. They didn't care about how they could use her, all that they cared about was getting her on the mend.

"If you need anything at all, don't hesitate to ask." Bruce told her. "Anything that you want, we can get it for you. After I check you over, we'll get some food in you." Bruce could tell that she was severely underweight, which meant that she would be eating food that had a lot of protein, so that she could gain all of that weight back. They would probably wind up giving her nutrient supplements as well.

They reached the infirmary part of the building, and Bucky lifted Anna from the stretcher onto a hospital bed.

"We're going to start with some x-rays." Bruce told her. "See if there's any broken bones."

Anna had one broken rib, and Bruce set it for her, trying to be as gentle as he could with her. She also had a bad case of influenza. Everything was fine until Bruce brought out the needle. Anna's eyes widened, and she felt her breath hitch in her throat. "No!" She cried out, trying to get out of the bed.

Bucky grabbed her gently by the arms, trying to keep her calm. "Anna, it's alright, this is going to help you, it's going to help battle the flu that's in your body."

"No, let me go! Get that away from me!" Visions of scientists with long needles, injecting serums that hurt like hell into her bloodstream flooded Anna's mind, and now it wasn't Bucky and Bruce that she saw, but two HYDRA scientists. "No, please!" She thrashed around, making it difficult for Bruce to do what he needed to get done.

"We're going to have to sedate her." Bruce grabbed another needle. "Bucky, hold her as still as you can."

Bucky's grip tightened slightly, and Bruce stuck the needle into her vein. Anna thrashed around for another minute or two before going limp, her eyes rolling back before closing completely.

Bucky sighed as he released the now unconscious girl. Whatever HYDRA had done to her, it had been bad. If it was anything like what he had been put through, then it was a miracle that she was still alive.

Bruce hooked an IV up to Anna, injecting the antibiotics that would help fight the influenza into it; she was also severely dehydrated, and the IV drip would hopefully help with that. "Once she wakes up, I'm going to have someone bring down a bowl of broth, she probably hasn't had anything all that sustainable in a while, she won't be able to keep foods that are too rich down yet."

Bucky nodded, tucking a stray strand of hair behind Anna's ear. She looked so innocent and peaceful when she was asleep, like she was years younger.

Bucky had never felt like this about anyone, had never felt this protective over anyone except for maybe Steve. It was like something had clicked, like she had been the missing piece in his life. Was this what they meant by love at first sight? Bucky didn't want to scare her off, so he wasn't going to talk to her about any of this just yet. Maybe someday, when she trusted him more. But for now, he could settle for being her friend and protector, the light in her seemingly endless darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

Anna awoke groggily, with Bucky still by her bedside, he hadn't left her side, feeling really guilty about how they had to sedate her. "How are you feeling?" He asked her gently.

"I'm alright." Anna responded. "What happened?"

"You started freaking out when Bruce was getting the antibiotics ready." Bucky explained to her. "We had no choice but to sedate you."

"I'm sorry." Anna whispered, and Bucky shook his head. "You don't have anything to be sorry for, you've been through a lot, we should have been more careful. Do you feel like you could eat something?"

Anna slowly nodded her head, and Bucky pressed a button. A few minutes later, a blonde woman came in, carrying a bowl of warm broth. "Hi Anna, I'm Pepper." Pepper smiled warmly, giving the bowl to Bucky. "It's nice to meet you, Steve has been telling us a little bit about you."

The two women talked for a few minutes before Pepper left, having some business that she had to attend to.

"Do you remember anything before HYDRA?" Bucky asked as he helped Anna to take small, slow sips of the broth.

"I remember some things, but a lot of it is fuzzy." Anna responded. "I think that I was about nineteen when they captured me, I was on my way to work at a diner."

"Do you know if anyone was looking for you?"

Anna shrugged her shoulders. "No idea. My dad died when I was little, he worked on the docks and there was an accident. My mom...well, she didn't really care what I did or what happened to me, she was always drunk or high or something. I moved out as soon as I was eighteen."

"I'm sorry." Bucky said sympathetically. "If your father was anything like you, than I'm sure that he was a great man." Bucky set the now empty broth bowl to the side. "If you're going to be uncomfortable sleeping in here, I can talk to Bruce and see if maybe we can get you into one of the bedrooms."

"Please." Anna said gratefully. The hospital type setting was greatly unsettling to her.

"Are you going to be alright for a few minutes?"

"I'm sure that I can last without you for a few minutes." Anna said, ad Bucky was glad to hear that her tone was a teasing one. He grinned at her before leaving the room, she already seemed so at ease around him.

Bucky found Bruce upstairs in the kitchen, making himself a cup of coffee.

"How's she doing?" Bruce asked Bucky.

"She's awake now." Bucky responded. "But she doesn't want to have to sleep in the infirmary, do you think that we could move her into one of the bedrooms?"

Bruce thought about it for a moment. "I suppose that it would be okay, we would have to monitor her closely though, just to make sure that nothing else is wrong."

"She's gonna be glad to hear that." Bucky assumed that the hospital setting reminded her of HYDRA, and he was surprised that she hadn't freaked out again. "I'll go and help her move into one of the empty bedrooms then."

Anna was beyond thrilled when she found out that she didn't have to stay in the infirmary. Bucky held out his hand to help her to stand up, and she gratefully took it. "Pepper gave you some clothes that she thought might fit you, once you're completely healed, she's going to take you out to get new clothes, as she doesn't know what exactly it is that you like." Bucky explained to her, and Anna nodded.

Everyone was being so nice to her here, and Anna wasn't completely sure that she deserved it.

"What's wrong?" Bucky asked her softly, noticing the look of distress on her face.

"It's just...you're all being so nice to me." It had been so long since Anna had been shown any form of kindness, it was almost too overwhelming for her to comprehend.

"Hey..." Bucky wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a hug. "I'm just glad that we were able to get you out of there. I know better than anyone the things that HYDRA can do to a person." She looked so small and frail in his arms, it made Bucky want to protect her from every bad thing in the world. "I'm going to keep you safe." Bucky whispered as he placed a kiss on her head.

They walked into the large, spacious bedroom, which was painted a warm cream color.

"There's an adjoining bathroom as well." Bucky told her. "There's all different kinds of shampoos and stuff if you want to take a shower or anything."

A shower sounded heavenly to Anna at that moment, and Bucky chuckled at her eagerness. "I'll wait out here for you, there's pajamas and things in the drawers."

Anna grabbed a pair of fuzzy feeling polka dot pajamas before going into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She turned on the shower before going into the linen closet, looking at three shelves that were filled with different smelling shampoos and conditioners. She chose one that smelled like coconut. She then stripped down, biting her lip as she stared into the mirror. Multiple bruises covered her torso, and it was obvious that she had been severely underfed, her bones were sticking out so much that Anna was surprised they weren't poking through her skin. Her greasy hair hung limply at shoulder length. She looked pitiful, an absolute mess, and she didn't even want to think about how she must have looked when she was curled up in that HYDRA cell.

Anna had never felt anything as heavenly as the hot water when it hit her skin. She looked down, watching as years of dirt and grime disappeared down the drain. Soon, the calming smell of coconut filled her nostrils as she scrubbed herself down, scrubbing at her scalp. Her skin was pink by the time that she was done, and she stepped out, wrapping a fluffy white towel around her body. Everything was looking up now, but nothing good stayed forever.


	4. Chapter 4

Bucky was sitting on Anna's bed, waiting for her to get out of the shower. Come morning, Tony would probably have some questions for her, and Bucky would have to make sure that he didn't pounce on her or anything, make sure that it didn't turn into an interrogation, Bucky knew how Tony could get sometimes. The relationship between Bucky and Tony was still a bit rocky, considering what had happened to Tony's parents, but it was slowly starting to get better.

Bucky's jaw basically dropped when he saw Anna walking out of the bathroom. He had thought that she had looked beautiful before, but now, with years of dust and grime washed away, she looked absolutely radiant. Her soft brown hair hung in loose, damp curls, and her blue eyes had more life to them than they previously did.

"You look great." Bucky told her, and Anna blushed lightly. "Thanks." She mumbled, and Bucky smiled at her. "You're probably exhausted, so I'll let you get some sleep, but my bedroom is right next to yours if you need anything."

Once Bucky had left, Anna slid under the thick comforter, yawning as she laid her head on the soft pillow, falling asleep in mere seconds.

_"Why couldn't you be more cooperative?" Ludwig Van Heemst, the main scientist in control of Anna, stood in front of her, sadly shaking his head as two guards strapped her down to a bed. "You could save yourself so much pain if you would only cooperate with us." He strapped electrodes to various areas of Anna's body. "You know the drill by now. You fight us and you get punished. Such a shame, that a body such as yours must be so marred." He went over to a small machine, flicking a switch. Electricity coursed through Anna's body, and the small woman screamed in pain, her body writhing around._

_Van Heemst smirked darkly, as though seeing her in such pain brought him pleasure despite his words to her. He turned up the level of electricity, Anna's screams echoing throughout the facility._

Bucky had been sleeping when Anna's screams jolted him out of his sleep. He was sort of glad, because his dreams weren't exactly peaceful. There was the occasional night when he had no dreams, but usually he dreamed of HYDRA, of the people that he had been made to kill. Today had been one of those nights, and Anna's screams had pierced through his nightmares. Bucky jumped out of his bed, running out of his room and into Anna's. Anna was writhing and thrashing around on her bed, and she sounded like she was in extreme pain. Bucky dashed to her bedside, gently gripping her by the arms and shaking her.

"Anna, wake up, it's just a dream, it's not real!"

Anna woke up with a scream, beads of sweat dotting her forehead, her blue eyes wide as they quickly assessed the room, scanning for any form of threat.

"It's okay." Bucky said quietly. "It was just a dream, you were only dreaming." He sat down on the bed, pulling the shaking girl into his lap, wrapping his arms around her comfortingly and whispering in her ear, telling her that everything was okay, that she wasn't in danger.

Anna laid her head on Bucky's chest, focusing on his heartbeat, counting every time it thumped, trying to time her breathing so that it matched his own.

"There you go." Bucky praised her. "Good, you're doing great." He stroked her hair in an effort to further calm her down, and once Anna was breathing normally, he kissed her head. "Bad dream?" He asked her, and Anna nodded. "I-I was back with HYDRA, they were torturing me...sending electricity through my body..."

"Ssh, you don't have to talk about it." Bucky murmured, he didn't want her to launch into another panic attack. "Do you want to sleep with me?"

"Can I?" Anna murmured, and Bucky nodded his head. "Yeah, come on." He lifted her up bridal style, carrying her into his room and setting her down on his bed. It was only now that Anna realized that Bucky was shirtless, and she blushed. She was glad that the room was dark so that he wouldn't see. Bucky laid down next to her, keeping his distance, not knowing how close to him she would want to be. Anna moved closer to him. "I would never have pegged you for being the shy one." She joked, and Bucky chuckled softly. "I just didn't want to push any boundaries with you."

"I trust you Bucky." Anna said as she laid her head on his chest, and Bucky slowly wrapped his arms around her middle, rubbing her sides in slow circles. "You know that I would never hurt you right?"

"I know." Anna replied, she had complete faith that Bucky would never hurt her, he had been a complete gentleman this entire time. She yawned, her eyes slowly drifting closed, and Bucky smiled as he watched her falling asleep before he fell asleep himself.

The next morning, Bucky was up before Anna, and he slowly disentangled himself from her, leaving a note on the nightstand that told her to come to the kitchen once she was ready. He decided to get breakfast ready for her, and he cracked some eggs in a pan.

Tony entered the kitchen, pouring himself a cup of coffee. "How's the girl settling in?"

"She's alright." Bucky responded as he put two pieces of toast in the toaster. "She had a nightmare last night though, so she spent the remainder of the night in my room."

"Don't you think that it's a little too early for you to be making a move on her?" Tony teased him, causing the Winter Soldier to roll his eyes. "You're hilarious. I'm not making a move on her, and I'm not going to." Nobody else had better make a move on her either, she was fragile, he didn't want her to have to go through anymore heartbreak.

"You may not see it, but everyone else around you does." Tony said as he sipped his coffee. "You care a lot about her, despite not having known her for very long, and sooner or later, you're going to realize just how much you care about her." Tony then left the room, leaving Bucky to ponder his statement in silence.


	5. Chapter 5

Anna awoke maybe an hour later, feeling extremely refreshed as she sat up, stretching. Sunlight streamed in through her window, and she thought that she could hear the vague calling of birds. Everything seemed so peaceful and serene here, and Anna was having a hard time believing that this was real, that it wasn't just some dream or fantasy that she would soon be waking up from.

Anna pulled the blanket off of herself, swinging her pale, thin legs over the edge of the bed, her bare feet nestling into the soft carpeting. She made her way down the hall and towards the kitchen, nearly getting lost once or twice before finally finding it.

Bucky was sitting on a stool at the kitchen island, and he got up when he saw her enter, smiling softly. "Morning, how'd you sleep?"

"Really good." Anna sat down at the island, and Bucky sat a plate of food in front of her. "Don't feel like you have to eat all of it, I know that it's probably a lot, just eat as much as you can without getting yourself sick."

Anna picked up a piece of toast, which had a brown looking spread on it. "What's this?"

Bucky grinned. "That's called Nutella. Go ahead and take a bite of it."

Anna hesitantly bit into the bread, and immediately, the taste of chocolate and hazelnut filled the girl's mouth. "Oh my God, this is so damn good!"

"Exactly what I said when I tried it for the first time." Bucky said, laughing lightly as Anna then devoured the entire piece of toast, starting in on the second piece.

"Looks like we're going to have to stock up on the Nutella." Tony commented as he walked into the room. "Nice to meet you kid, I'm Tony-"

"Tony Stark." Anna finished. "I know who you are, HYDRA tried to plant into my head that you were the enemy and needed to be destroyed."

"And?" Tony raised an eyebrow. "Did their methods of brainwashing work?"

"Nah." Anna shook her head. "I basically told them to shove their opinions of you up their asses. Got me a dose of shock therapy, but it was worth it."

"Shock therapy?" Tony asked her, and Bucky sighed. Let the interrogation begin.

"They would stick these little electrode things all over my body, it would send electricity coursing through my body, worse pain that I've ever felt in my entire life."

"Dad, are you seriously giving her the third degree this early in the morning?" A girl who looked to be around nineteen walked into the kitchen, shaking her head at Tony before looking at Anna. "My name's Taylor, I'm sorry if he gets too personal with his questions, sometimes he doesn't know when to hold back."

"It's fine." Anna grinned at her. "He isn't as bad as he could be."

"Dad, at least let the poor thing get settled in first before you start bombarding her with questions." Taylor said reprimandingly as she glared playfully at her father. Anna had the feeling that the two of them would be getting along just fine.

"Once you're done eating, you and I are going to take a drive into the city." Taylor said to Anna. "Pepper was supposed to go, but I thought that we could use this opportunity to get to know each other a little bit better."

Anna nodded her head. "Okay, that sounds like fun."

"And maybe once we're done with that, we can grab lunch somewhere, I know a great burger joint."

"Just don't keep her out too long." Bucky said to her. "She's still recuperating after all."

"Buck, it's not like I'm making her run a marathon or anything." Taylor pouted a bit at him. "Just let me enjoy this."

Bucky still looked worried, and Anna giggled softly. "Don't worry Bucky, I'll let her know if I'm getting too tired or anything and we'll head back, okay?"

This seemed to satisfy the soldier, and he nodded his head. "Alright." He relented, and Taylor grinned at Anna. "This is gonna be great."

Taylor went with Anna back to her room after breakfast. "You know...I kind of know what it's like, being used as nothing more than a lab rat."

"You do?" Anna asked her in surprise, and Taylor nodded her head. "Yeah. Tony isn't my real dad, my biological father was a scientist that worked with HYDRA, he ran a whole bunch of experiments on me until I ran away, and I lived on the streets until Tony and Pepper found me and took me in. You wanna see my powers?"

Anna quickly nodded, and Taylor took a deep breath before transforming in front of Anna, changing into a little red fox.

"That's amazing." Anna said once Taylor had changed back again. "I can do something similar, I change into other people." She turned into Taylor to show her.

"Wicked." Taylor grinned at her. "We're definitely going to have to use that to our advantage, maybe pull some pranks later."

Anna nodded again before going into the closet, pulling out some jeans and a short sleeved shirt that had flowers on it. She quickly pulled the outfit on, coughing a little bit. It wasn't nearly as bad as the day before, thanks to the antibiotics that Bruce had given her, but it would still be a day or two before it would be gone completely. Anna then quickly ran a brush through her hair and pulled on some brown sandals. "How do I look?"

"Hold on." Taylor disappeared for a minute or two, returning with a hair pin, pulling some of Anna's hair back, pushing the pin in. "There, now you look perfect. Come on, let's get going."


	6. Chapter 6

Anna followed Taylor out to a sleek, black Mazda Miata, getting into the passenger seat.

"So what's going on with you and Bucky?" Taylor asked as the girls got their seatbelts on.

"What do you mean?" Anna asked her, and Taylor sent her a smirk. "Oh come on, I see the way that he looks at you. You should have seen his face when he found out that it was just you and me going shopping together, it was like he thought that you would die or something unless he was right there by your side the entire time. He's totally crushing on you."

Anna blushed darkly. "I wouldn't go so far as to say that, how could he be in love with me? He's just feeling protective over me, because he was the one who found me in that HYDRA cell."

"Maybe." Taylor shrugged her shoulders. "But I predict that you're going to start dating within a year, you'll be pregnant within two."

Anna could feel her face turning the color of a fire hydrant. "Isn't that a little bit extreme?" She bit her lip hard. "I don't think that I can even have kids."

Anna heard Taylor sigh as she turned to look out the window. HYDRA had worked on her so much, it definitely wouldn't surprise Anna if she found out that she indeed couldn't have any children. It saddened her though, if she could have kids, she would do everything in her power to make sure that they didn't have the kind of life that she did. She would give them the world.

"I wouldn't give up hope just yet." Taylor tried to comfort her, glancing at her briefly before turning her eyes back to the road. "If you want, Bruce could do some tests, find out for sure."

Anna slowly nodded. "That would be great, thank you."

"And Anna...if you want to talk about anything, anything at all, I'll always be there for you. Like I told you before, I've been through similar experiences, it might help if you confide in someone who can actually understand everything that you've been through. You can talk to Bucky as well, he's been through more than you and me combined."

Anna knew a little bit of what had happened to Bucky, but that was also what HYDRA had told her, and after everything, she wasn't sure how much of what they told her was a lie. After all, they had lied to her about Tony, or had tried to anyways, so who knew what else they had been lying about.

About twenty minutes later, they pulled up to a clothing shop. "My friend Beth works here." Taylor explained as they got out of the car. "She promised to get you fixed up with some stuff."

Beth was about the same age as Taylor, with bright, bubblegum pink hair, and she bounced over to Taylor and Anna. "Hi, you must be Anna!" She pulled the surprised girl into a hug. "Taylor and I talked a little bit on the phone, and she told me a bit about you, we're gonna get you a whole new wardrobe." She took Anna by the hand, pulling her into the fitting room area. "I've already picked out a bunch of outfits for you." She said as she lightly shoved Anna into one of the fitting rooms. "Once you've got an outfit on, come out here so that Taylor and I can see how it looks on you." Beth pulled the curtain shut as she left, and Anna was wondering what exactly Taylor had gotten her into.

Anna must have been there for at least two hours or more, trying on the different outfits that Beth had gotten her. When Anna and Taylor left the store, they both had bags upon bags, all of them filled with clothes for Anna.

"I'm sorry if Beth overwhelmed you at all." Taylor said as they loaded the bags into the trunk of the car. "I know that she can get a bit excitable at times, she was just really excited to meet you after everything that I told her about you."

"It's alright." Anna was quick to reassure her. "I actually really liked her-" She suddenly stopped, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand on edge; she could feel goosebumps forming on her arms.

"What's wrong?" Taylor asked her, noticing the rapid change in her demeanor. "Are you okay?"

"I think that we should go home." Anna whispered. "Please Taylor, I've got a really bad feeling."

"Get in the car." Taylor said quickly, taking a look around before getting into the car. As they pulled away, neither girl noticed the man in a business suit and dark sunglasses, watching them disappear from view.

Taylor had sent her dad a text as they drove back, and the man met them in the garage. "Were you followed?" He asked Taylor urgently, and she shook her head. "No, I was careful, I'm certain that no one followed us here."

"Both of you girl, get inside now, I'm going to have FRIDAY batten down the hatches until we make sure that there's no one after either of you."

Once all three of them were inside of the compound, they went into lockdown mode. Bucky quickly ran up to the girls. "Are you okay?" He asked Anna, but the woman didn't answer him. Instead she wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him tightly, laying her head on his chest. Bucky sighed as he held her close to himself, rubbing her back. "It's okay Anna." He whispered in her ear. "It's okay, I got you, nothing's going to hurt you."

"What did you see?" Tony asked Taylor, and she shook her head. "I didn't see anyone or anything suspicious, but Anna was getting a really bad feeling, and I could tell by the look on her face that she sensed something was seriously wrong, so I thought that it would be best if we came back here."

"You were wise in doing so, HYDRA is probably willing to do anything to get her back. I don't think that she should leave for a while." He turned to look at Bucky. "Why don't you make Anna a cup of tea or something? Get her calmed down a little bit."

Bucky nodded, whispering something in Anna's ear before leading her away. Tony sighed softly before summoning his AI. "FRIDAY, let's get a look at some security cameras."


	7. Chapter 7

While Bucky was calming Anna down, which he really seemed to be good at by the way, Tony was combing through security cameras of the area that Anna and Taylor had been in. He didn't know who HYDRA was after. It could by Anna, but it also wouldn't be the first time that they had tried to take Taylor either. For all that Tony knew, HYDRA could be after both of them at the moment. At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, there was no one following the girls in or out of the clothing shop, no one seemed to be watching them. Then...Tony saw it. A man in a business suit, wearing dark sunglasses, watching as Taylor pulled away, heading back towards the compound.

"FRIDAY, can you run facial rec for me please?" Tony asked the AI.

"One moment sir." FRIDAY responded. It took her only a few moments. "Because of the sunglasses that he is wearing, I cannot be certain, but there is an eighty one point seven percent possibility that this man is Gregor Ivanoff, a high ranking HYDRA operative. Looking at the files that Mr. Rogers and Mr. Barnes were able to retrieve from the HYDRA facility, it appears that he was also Miss Gregory's handler."

Not good, definitely not good. Although Tony was relieved that it meant no one was after Taylor, this also meant that HYDRA was actively searching for Anna. She would have to stay here, she couldn't go out anywhere, at least not until this man was caught. Tony wasn't sure that they should tell Anna that this man was looking for her, that might cause her to freak, and there was also the possibility that it would set back her healing process. But on the other hand, they could really use some information on this man, and Anna would be the best person to give them that, because she had worked with him, albeit unwillingly.

No, Anna had to know. Tony realized that they had to be honest with her. HYDRA had tried to fill her head with lies, and if Tony tried to lie to her about this, even though in his mind it would be for her own good, than she might think that they were no better than HYDRA was.

"Did you find anything?" Bucky asked as he and Anna walked into the room. Anna looked much more calm now, although she still had a look of fear in her eyes.

"Yeah, actually." Tony was talking to both of them, although his gaze remained on Anna. "Does the name Gregor Ivanoff mean anything to you?"

Anna paled a bit as she nodded her head. Bucky squeezed her hand lightly. "It's okay." He whispered. "Just remember that he can't hurt you here, okay?"

"Can you tell us exactly what his job in HYDRA was?" Tony asked, his voice gentle.

"He was my handler." Anna responded. "Whenever HYDRA made me go on a mission, he would go with me, ensuring that I did my job, and that I did it correctly. If I refused to do it or if I messed up, than he would also be the one to punish me."

"It's a good thing that you and Taylor came back here when you did." Tony told her. "I was looking through the footage of different security cameras in the area, and I saw him, he was watching you and Taylor."

"What?" Anna gasped. "He-he's here for me?" Her main concern wasn't about herself, but if he had tried to capture her, than he could have hurt Taylor in the process.

"Now, FRIDAY wasn't one hundred percent certain that it was Ivanoff, but it's a high possibility, so we're going to be on the lookout for him. But he can't hurt you, not so long as you stay in here, alright? You're safe so long as you stay in the Compound."

Anna nodded, Bucky's grip on her hand the only thing that was keeping her grounded at the moment.

"Come on." Bucky whispered, tugging on her hand and pulling her away. "There's something that I think might make you feel a little bit better."

Bucky led Anna to an enclosed garden. There were all kinds of flowers there, roses, petunias, violets. It was beautiful, and Anna just stared at it for a moment.

"I come here whenever I need to think about things, or I need to be alone." Bucky explained to Anna. "It helps to calm me down whenever I'm pissed off or upset, so I thought that maybe it could be a calming place for you as well."

"It's lovely." Anna whispered, and Bucky smiled softly as he sat down with her on a stone bench. "I'm glad that you like it. Anna, listen, there's no way that that Ivanoff guy is going to be able to get you, because I'm not going to let him, understand? I'm always going to be here, I'm always going to protect you."

"Why?" Anna asked as she looked up at him. "You have no connections to me, so why go to all of this trouble?"

Bucky sighed softly, and he bit his lip. "I...it's kind of hard to explain. You said that we don't have any connection, but I...I feel one. I know that we only just met, but I do, I feel this connection to you...almost...almost like you might be the one for me."

The one? Was Bucky saying that he was in love with her? "Bucky?"

"I'm sorry for laying all of this on you, and if you want me to stay away from you for now on, I completely understand, and I'll respect your wishes."

Bucky started to get up, but Anna quickly grabbed his hand. "Please don't go." She told him. "I...I'll admit that it's surprising, but then I realize...Bucky...you've treated me in a way that no one has treated me in a long time. You treat me with love, like I'm actually worth something. You may not realize it, but you make me feel wanted." She had Bucky sit back down beside her. "I don't know where we're at right now, what this makes us...but...can we take things slow? I...I feel things about you as well, but I want to make sure that this is what you really want, that what you're feeling won't disappear after a while."

Bucky knew that his feelings for Anna could never dissipate, but if she wanted to go slow, than that's what they would do, he would do whatever she wanted. Hell, he would kill for her if he had to. "Okay." He answered, and Anna smiled softly. "Thank you." She told him, she was grateful that he was so understanding, that he wouldn't force her to do anything that she wasn't comfortable doing.

Bucky gently cupped Anna's cheek. "I'm in love with you Anna, and that's something that's never going to change."

Anna heard a squeal, and she turned to see Taylor looking at them. "I knew that you two would get together!"

Anna laughed, blushing hard as she hid her face in his chest, feeling it rumble as Bucky chuckled deeply.

Taylor ran off, a wide grin on her face. "Clint, you owe my twenty bucks!"

"For Christ's sake! This is the _last_ time that I make a bet with you!"

Anna expected to be teased once Taylor made it known to the others that she and Bucky were now a thing, but to her surprise, no one said anything about it, although that may have had something to do with the fact that Bucky threatened anyone that even thought about teasing her.

The only one who said something was Natasha. "He'll be good for you." Natasha told Anna as they all sat down at dinner that evening. "Actually, I think that you guys will be good for each other, you'll help each other heal."

Anna knew that Bucky was definitely helping her, but as for her helping him? She honestly hadn't thought about it in that way.

"You've both been through similar experiences." Natasha explained. "That will help the healing process. You were both taken by HYDRA, both brainwashed by them, so you can comfort each other, you can say that you truly understand where the other one is coming from."

Bucky wrapped an arm around Anna, pressing a kiss on her head. "I know that she's been good for me." He said, grinning brightly, causing Anna to blush.

"Just don't be making out in public." Natasha told them playfully. "That's something that I would rather not have to witness."

Everyone laughed lightly, including Anna. For once, she didn't feel afraid, for once, she felt like she was home.


	8. Chapter 8

After the near run in that Anna and Taylor had had with HYDRA, it was like Bucky had a mother hen mode that someone had activated. He was constantly hovering around Anna, making sure that she had everything that she needed. Anna appreciated everything that he was doing for her, but it was starting to feel almost like he was smothering her.

"Buck, seriously, ease up on her." Steve said to Bucky one day, Anna had tripped and Bucky had just barely managed to keep her from scraping her knee. He looked her up and down, asking her if she was hurt, checking for broken bones.

"Bucky, I love how caring you are towards me, but I'm not made of glass you know." Anna added. "I get that you're worried after everything that happened with Ivanoff, but I'm okay, really."

Actually Anna felt better than she ever had before. She spent a lot of time in the gym with Natasha, who had started to teach her some defensive techniques. Anna felt more confident, more sure of her self.

Taylor had apologized multiple times for not keeping a better eye out, but Anna assured her that there wasn't any need for her to apologize. After all, it wasn't like Taylor could have known that Ivanoff would be there. And Anna and Taylor had made it back to the Compound safely, that was the important thing.

"Sorry." Bucky said sheepishly. "I guess that I'm just worried that HYDRA might get their hands on you again."

"They aren't going to get me." Anna pressed a gentle kiss to the super soldier's cheek. "With you being here to protect me, they won't be able to touch me."

Bucky blushed lightly, hiding his pink face in her neck as the others chuckled softly. Bucky seemed to be in an overall better mood now that he and Anna were together. Before, it wouldn't take a lot for him to become moody and irritable, but now that he was with Anna, it was like he was happy all of the time. It wasn't like he was a ray of sunshine, that just wasn't his personality. But every time that Anna walked into the room, his eyes seemed to light up, and any frown that had been on his face vanished without a trace.

Steve was beyond thrilled that Bucky had finally found someone. It seemed that Anna brought Bucky the happiness that Steve had felt whenever he had been around Peggy. A sad smile crossed his features as he thought about the woman that he had once loved, the woman that he still loved, and that he would always love. For Steve, there would never be another woman like Peggy, she had been one in a million.

Bucky felt the same exact way about Anna. He knew that she was the one that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, that she was the one that he was meant to be with.

And Anna felt the same way with Bucky. It had been so long, years, since she had been shown any sort of affection or love, and that was all that Bucky seemed to shower her with. It was something that Anna would take a little bit to get used to. She smiled softly as she played with Bucky's hair. As big and bad as he made himself out to be, he could still get embarrassed easily, and Anna thought that was really adorable about him.

"So when are you two going to finally tie the knot?" Tony demanded, and this time it was Anna that was blushing. "That's probably a long ways down the road." She responded. She and Bucky had both agreed to take things slowly; they hadn't even really shared a kiss or anything like that yet. Sometimes Anna couldn't help but wonder if Bucky wished that things could move along a little bit faster, but he seemed perfectly content with the speed that things were going at, so usually her fears just dissipated.

"Come on darling, why don't we go for a walk?" Bucky asked, and Anna had a feeling that it was an excuse to get them out of what was rapidly starting to turn into an embarrassing situation for the both of them. Anna quickly nodded her head, taking his hand and letting him lead her out of the room.

But as it turned out, there had been more that Bucky had wanted to discuss with her. "Tony still hasn't been able to locate Ivanoff." He told her as they walked down the hall. His arm was wrapped around her waist now in an almost protective manner, as though even mentioning the HYDRA agent's name would cause him to suddenly appear. "We think that he's gone underground, but if he really is trying to get you back into HYDRA's clutches, than it won't be too long until he surfaces again." He gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry though, the Compound has a lot of defenses, he wouldn't even be able to make it five feet inside."

Anna knew that Bucky and the others would keep her safe, but she couldn't help but worry. What if one of them got hurt in the process? Than it would be her fault and Anna didn't know if she would be able to live with that kind of guilt. They had already done so much for her, but risking their lives to make sure that she was safe? Anna wasn't sure that she wanted them to be willing to take on that kind of risk.

"Bucky..." Anna bit her lip. "If it comes down to your life or mine, promise me that you won't do anything stupid, that you'll get yourself out of the situation."

Bucky frowned. "No can do doll, I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure that you're safe from harm."

"But Bucky-"

"No buts about it. I love you Anna, and if I have to die to make sure that you're safe and unharmed-"

An alarm kept Bucky from finishing his sentence. "Shit." He said. "That alarm means that someone's broken through the defenses. Come on, we have to get you somewhere safe." He took her hand again and started running down the hall. They didn't get very far though, because when they turned the corner, they found themselves surrounded by HYDRA soldiers, all their guns aimed at the two.


	9. Chapter 9

Anna gripped Bucky's arm tightly, her gaze trained on the soldiers that were in front of them.

"A super soldier _and_ our little science project." Ivanoff sneered at the two. "What a prize indeed. You've been a very bad girl indeed Anna."

Anna whimpered quietly, and Bucky pulled her closer to him. "You aren't going to be touching a single hair on her head Ivanoff."

"You know who I am. How touching." Ivanoff placed a hand on his heart. "But the thing is, I'm going to be doing whatever I want. You know why that is? Because I _can_. Seize them."

Bucky looked at Anna. "I want you to run." He told her. "Just past the Compound, there's some woods, they won't be able to find you in there. I'll come looking for you once I've dealt with these guys."

"But Bucky-"

"Just do as I say. Now go!" Bucky launched himself into battle, and Anna took off running while the soldiers were distracted with him. Everywhere battle raged. Clint and Natasha were fighting a group of soldiers, as were Tony and Taylor.

Anna ran out the door and towards the woods that Bucky had mentioned, not looking back once, his words echoing in her head. _I'll come looking for you_.

Branches scratched Anna's face and arms as she went deeper and deeper into the woods. Bucky was right, these woods were so dense that the HYDRA soldiers would have a hard time finding her in here. Anna just hoped that Bucky would survive, and that he would come to find her like he had promised.

The soldiers had been nothing for Bucky, and once Ivanoff realized that this was a losing battle, he had quickly taken off running. Bucky scoffed. _'Coward'_ he thought to himself as he lunged at Ivanoff, tackling him to the ground. One swift punch knocked the guy out, Bucky knew that there would be questions that Tony would probably be wanting to ask the agent.

Speaking of, Tony and Taylor walked up just then. Taylor had some scratches on her face, and Tony's suit was banged up a bit, but other than that they looked alright.

"Where's Anna at?" Taylor asked. "Did they get her?"

Bucky shook his head. "No, I had her run off into the woods."

Tony sighed. "We're gonna have a hell of a time finding her, those woods are like a labyrinth."

"We have to find her, I told her that I would come for her." Bucky kicked at Ivanoff's side. "What do we do with this guy?"

"Put him in one of the cells. We can question him later, after we find Anna and get her back safe and sound."

Bucky dragged Ivanoff off, and Tony looked at Taylor. "You know the woods better than any of us, do you think that you'd be able to find her?"

Taylor nodded her head. "I know those woods like the back of my hand. She probably went as deep inside as she possibly could. I'll find her."

Anna wasn't sure how much time had passed. Minutes? Hours? She had climbed a tree, settling down on one of its thick branches. Her legs dangled off of either side of the branch, and she kept her gaze fixed on the ground, looking, waiting to see if anyone was going to be coming. Whether it was friend or foe, only time would tell. Then, she heard it, the breaking of branches as someone was walking through the woods. Was it Bucky? Or had Ivanoff dealt with him and was now coming in search of her?

Anna leaned forward, placing her hands on the branch in order to stabilize herself and keep her balance as she tried to figure out who it was. A familiar female figure came into view, and Anna let out a cry of relief before climbing down the tree as quickly as she could, running into the waiting arms of Taylor.

"Are you okay?" Taylor asked her, her fingers lightly brushing against the scratches that were on Anna's face that had by this time scabbed over.

"I'm fine." Anna assured her. "What about the others? Are they all okay? Is Bucky..." She didn't want to finish her sentence, starting to fear the worst.

"Bucky's fine. He would have come looking for you, but he doesn't know the woods as well as I do. We have Ivanoff in custody, he isn't going to hurt you anymore. Once we get back and get you cleaned up, Dad wants you to be there while he's questioning Ivanoff, would you be okay with that?"

Anna nodded her head. "Yeah, I think so."

"Good. Come on, let's head back, Bucky is worried sick about you."

It took an hour by the time the girls made it out of the woods and into the clearing that led to the Compound. Bucky was waiting by the entrance, his eyes scanning the woods as he anxiously waited for the girls to come out. When he saw Anna's figure, looking so small and fragile next to Taylor, he wasted no time in running towards them. He swooped Anna up into a tight embrace before pressing his lips to hers.

Anna kissed him back, and it took her a minute to realize that Bucky was _crying_. "Bucky..." She whispered as she wiped away his tears.

"I was so scared." He whispered to her. "I was so scared that one of the HYDRA guys would be the one to find you, and not Taylor."

"Buck, it's okay, I'm alright." She ran a hand through his hair. "It's over now, I'm alright, I'm safe."

Taylor went inside, allowing the two to have their intimate moment.

"How is she?" Tony asked Taylor.

"She's alright, just a bit scratched up." Taylor responded as the two went into the kitchen so that Taylor could grab a bottle of water from the fridge. "I think that it's safe to say that Bucky is worse off than she is at the moment. I would wait to interrogate Ivanoff until the morning, after Anna has had some rest."

Taylor thought that all of their troubles were over now, but as it turned out, their troubles were only just beginning.


	10. Chapter 10

Bucky started having nightmares after that day. Nightmares of Ivanoff coming and taking Anna away, nightmares of him killing Anna right in front of Bucky, Anna looking right at Bucky and saying that it was all his fault. Bucky would wake up in a cold sweat, his entire body shaking in fear and panic. Then he would get out of bed and tiptoe over to Anna's room. Anna would always wake up as soon as she heard the door opening and once she saw the look on Bucky's face, how terrified and vulnerable he seemed to be, she would open up her arms and he would climb into her embrace. The truth was, Anna was having nightmares herself, so they were both comforting each other.

Tony gave Anna a few days to recover from her ordeal before asking her to be there with him when he questioned Ivanoff. Anna agreed, albeit hesitantly, she wasn't exactly looking forward to seeing that man again.

"You don't have to do it." Bucky said softly as he took Anna's hand. "Tony can go and question him by himself, you don't need to be there with him."

"No, I want to be there." Anna insisted, but inside, she wasn't so sure about that. Did she want to be there? She didn't know. She looked at Tony and took a deep breath. "When are we going to question him?"

"As soon as possible." Tony said, he seemed surprised that she had actually agreed to go with him. "When do you think that you would be ready enough to do it?"

"Honestly, I don't think that I'll ever be ready." Anna told him. "So let's just get this over with as soon as possible."

"Alright. Feel like going right now?"

"Let's do it."

"I want to be there with you." Bucky told Anna, taking her hand gently in his own.

"Bucky-"

"Please Anna, I don't like the idea of you being down there with that guy. I know that Tony's gonna be down there with you, but it would make me feel a hell of a lot better if I could be by your side."

"Alright." Anna pressed a small kiss to his lips. "If it makes you feel better, than you can come with us."

Tony pretended to gag a little bit. "You two are so sappy that it makes me sick."

"Oh please." Bucky scoffed as his arm wrapped around Anna. "You're just jealous because you and Pepper aren't like this."

"Oh please, we could be all cuddly and cozy if we wanted to be, and we are, just not in front of everyone. I have a reputation to keep up after all."

"Are you two going to stand here and argue with each other all day?" Anna asked as she rolled her eyes. "Or can we just get going?"

Tony sent her a look. "I'm not sure that I like it when you're in sassy mode, I think that you've been hanging around my daughter too much."

They went down, down, down to the prison cells. Anna was starting to wonder whether or not the elevator would ever stop. "How far down does this go anyways?"

"Pretty far down." Tony told her. "Some of the people that we have down here have special powers, so I wanted the cells to be far enough underground that they wouldn't be able to hurt anyone or anything on the surface if they were able to break out. This elevator only works on my biometrical signature, plus the doors are camouflaged, so you would have to know exactly where they're at."

Finally the elevator stopped, and the doors opened. Anna walked out, then glanced back one last time as the doors closed. Sure enough, once they had closed you wouldn't even know that they were there.

Anna and Bucky walked behind Tony, Anna gripping Bucky's hand tightly as they walked past the numerous cells. There were all sorts of people down here, there was a middle aged woman with wings, and she growled at the threesome, showing rows of extra sharp teeth.

"We have a lot of mutants down here." Tony said as they walked further on down the hall. "We're working in league with Charles Xavier and his group of X-Men, and any mutants that we capture, we give him a call and he sends someone to come and retrieve them. He's sending a team on Saturday to come and get them."

Finally they stopped in front of Ivanoff's cell. Ivanoff was curled up on a small cot, his back to them. There weren't any bars on the cell, there was a force field that kept the prisoners from escaping.

"Ivanoff." Tony said sharply. "Get your sorry ass up, we have a few questions that we need to ask you."

Ivanoff didn't respond, and Anna frowned softly. "Tony...his shoulders aren't rising and falling..."

"So what?" Tony asked her.

"Tony...his shoulders should be rising and falling if he was breathing..."

Tony's eyes widened as he realized what Anna was saying. "Shit." He quickly pressed the button that lowered the force field to that one cell and went inside, rolling Ivanoff onto his back.

Ivanoff's eyes were wide and unblinking, white foam was at the corners of his mouth.

"What happened?" Anna gasped, and Bucky shook his head grimly. "We won't know for sure until we get him to Bruce, but if I had to take a guess, than I would say that it's cyanide poisoning. It's common for agents to have them hidden somewhere, that way if they were to be captured by the enemy, they would take the pill, and die before they could be questioned or tortured for information." Bucky stood in front of Anna, shielding her from the body. "Come on, let's get you out of here." He grabbed her lightly by the shoulder, leading her back towards the elevator.

The winged woman from before snarled at them again. "You think you're so much better than us, don't you little girl?"

Anna turned to look at her, confusion written on her face. "Um...I'm sorry?"

"I know who you are, I know what you can do. You think that just because you aren't in a cage like we are that you're better than us?" She cackled with laughter. "You are no better than we are, and sooner or later, you'll wind up in one of these cages, just like me."

Bucky gripped Anna's hand firmly, dragging her towards the elevator as Tony joined them.

"You really should have it so that the prisoners can't talk." Bucky grumbled as the threesome stepped onto the elevator.

"She says that kind of stuff to everyone." Tony assured Anna. "Don't worry about it too much, okay?"

Anna nodded her head, still hearing that woman's witch-like laughter as the doors slid shut.


	11. Chapter 11

When Saturday rolled around, Tony warned Anna that a certain member of the X-Men that was coming that day wasn't the nicest. "He isn't mean per say, but Logan can be crude, he speaks whatever he's feeling without regard for other people's feelings."

"It's better to be honest about things than to sugarcoat them I think." Anna responded, shrugging her shoulders. Anna preferred it when people were honest with her. Even if the truth hurt, it was better than being lied to, even if the lie was supposed to make you feel better.

"Logan is coming with another X-Men member, a mutant named Storm. And Professor Xavier himself is coming along, which doesn't happen often. Apparently he learned about you and he wants to come and meet you for himself."

"How did he find out about me?" Anna thought that maybe Tony had told him about her, but found out that wasn't the case.

"Xavier is like, a mind reader or something." Tony said, dismissively waving his hand. "I don't really know the ups and downs of the whole thing, but he wants to talk to you, probably to find out the extent of your powers. He won't hurt you or anything. Well, he's in a wheelchair, so he couldn't physically hurt you even if he wanted to." Tony glanced at the watch that was strapped onto his wrist. "Speaking of, they should be here any second. Feel like greeting them with me?"

"Sure." Anna nodded her head before walking outside with Tony.

As soon as Anna laid eyes on Professor Charles Xavier, she knew that he was a man she could trust. He was older, and had a kind smile on his face. He had this kind of aura that was emanating from him that told a person that anything they told him would remain between them. Standing on the left of Xavier was a large man. He had black hair and broad shoulders. Looking down, Anna could see large metal claws protruding from his knuckles. To the left of Xavier was a dark skinned woman with white hair.

"Professor." Tony strode forward, a big smile on his face as he shook Xavier's hand. "It's been a while, how are you?"

"Splendid, Tony." Xavier's smile only seemed to widen. He turned to look at Anna. "This must be your newest recruit."

"Yeah. Professor, this is Anna. Anna, this is Professor Charles Xavier."

"How do you do?" Anna said as she shook his hand.

"It's lovely to meet you Anna. These are my associates Logan and Storm."

Logan merely nodded at Anna, but Storm gave her a smile. "The Professor has been very excited to meet you."

"So I've heard." Anna said with a small giggle.

"Anna, would you mind showing us exactly what your powers are?" Xavier asked, and Anna nodded her head. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes before morphing into an exact replica of Xavier, wheelchair and all. "I can turn into anyone." Anna said as she changed back to herself. "If I've laid eyes on them or if I've seen a picture of them, than I can change into them."

"Amazing." Xavier murmured, and Anna blushed a bit. "It's nothing special, it's not like I have super strength or anything that's really of use."

"Every person's power is important Anna. If you were granted with a power, than you were meant to use it. Whether you use it for good or for evil is entirely up to you. How old were you when you first discovered your powers?"

"Oh...um, I wasn't exactly born with them." Anna bit her lip. "When I was younger I was kidnapped by HYDRA, they ran all sorts of different experiments on me, injected me with God only knows how many serums."

"We had a visit from her old handler the other day." Tony added. "We managed to capture him, but he died before we could question him, swallowed a cyanide pill. How they were able to get past the Base's defenses I have no idea, I've been working on trying to increase them."

"Are you sure that she's safe here Tony?" Xavier queried, and Tony hesitated. No, he didn't know for sure if Anna would continue to be safe here. If HYDRA had been able to break through the defenses once before, than they would probably be able to do it again, it was only a matter of time, and this next time there would probably be more men, and there would be no telling if they would be able to keep Anna from getting captured again.

"She could come to the school." Xavier offered. "It would be safer there, because as far as this HYDRA group is concerned, it doesn't exist."

"Good luck with that." Tony said with a snort. "Bucky won't let her leave his side, he's extremely clingy."

"By all means, your Winter Soldier is welcome to come along." Xavier offered before looking up at Anna. "How about it dear? You would be safe, truly safe. Not to say that you wouldn't be safe here, but HYDRA knows about this place, and also how to get through it's defenses. I don't know how much Tony has told you about my school. I teach mutants, people who were born with their powers, how to use them and control them. Children of all ages, the youngest being seven and the oldest being nineteen."

The school sounded wonderful, Anna would like nothing more than to go there, but…"Would it be alright if I talked to Bucky about it first?"

"Of course. It will take us a while to get the mutants that Tony has managed to capture for me into the jet anyways. Will an hour be long enough?"

Anna nodded. "It should be, thank you." She told him before walking inside, finding Bucky in the gym. "Bucky, can we talk a minute?"

Bucky paused in pummeling the punching bag. "Of course doll, what's up?"

Anna told him everything that Xavier had told her about the school. "He said that you can come too. Bucky...I want to stay here, I love being here, love everyone here, but you have to admit, if HYDRA was able to get in before, the chances are pretty high that they can do it again."

"What makes you so sure that this school would be safer?" Bucky's brow was furrowed, a sign that he was mulling things over.

"Professor Xavier says that no one knows about the place." Anna responded. "He thinks that I could be safe there, and he knows that I would never go anywhere without you, which is why he said that you would be more than welcome to come with. So….what do you think?"

Bucky was silent for a few moments. What was he going to say? Would he agree that it was a good idea, that they should go with Professor Xavier to his school? Or would he insist that they would be safer here with the other Avengers? Whatever his final decision would wind up being, Anna would abide by it.

"I agree that the Base isn't the safest place for you now." Bucky said slowly. "This school might be a good option for you. From what I've been told, it's way out in the country. But Anna...the team needs me, I don't know if I would be able to go with you-"

"Go." Steve was standing in the doorway of the gym, a smile on his face. "You both need this Buck, you've been fighting for years. First with HYDRA, and then against them. It's time for you to finally take a break."

"But won't you guys need me?"

"If we're in desperate need of your services, we'll let you know." Steve walked over to Bucky and put a hand on his shoulder. "Take a break Bucky, spend some time with the girl that you love. We'll be okay."

Bucky nodded, and he smiled at Anna as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "What do you say that we give the old Professor the good news?"

Anna wrinkled her nose as she pushed away from him. "We aren't going to be doing a single damn thing until you take a shower, you reek to high heaven."


	12. Chapter 12

Once Bucky was showered and at least somewhat presentable, he and Anna left with the Professor and the rest of his group. Taylor hugged Anna, telling her to give her a call if she needed anything. "Or if you're surrounded by too many men, I'll come down there and give you some womanly support."

Anna laughed at that. "Thanks Taylor, I'll be sure to let you know if I need that kind of support."

She and Bucky stepped onto the jet, and Bucky waved at Steve as the doors closed.

"Are you gonna be okay?" Anna asked Bucky as they sat in comfortable seats in the front of the jet. "You and Steve have stuck together like glue."

"I'll be okay." Bucky replied as he helped her with her seatbelt, bringing it across her chest before snapping it closed. "Steve understands why I'm coming with you. Besides, he isn't going to be missing me too much, he has Wilson to keep him company."

Anna had never really met Sam Wilson, he had been on a mission somewhere, so he hadn't been at the Compound.

Anna raised an eyebrow, a smirk forming onto her lips. "Bucky...are you jealous?"

"What? No." Bucky scoffed as he looked away, gazing out of the window. "Of course I'm not jealous, what the hell would I be jealous for?"

"That Steve has another male friend that he's close to." Anna took his hand. "Bucky, Sam will never be able to replace you, you know that, right? You're Steve's best friend, and you're always going to be his best friend, no one in the world will be able to replace you."

Bucky bit his lip. "They get along so well." He said in a quiet voice. "They banter like Steve and I used to when we were younger. Now it feels like whenever Steve and I talk, he speaks in such a fragile tone, like he might say something that will trigger the Winter Soldier."

Anna sighed softly. "We've all been through some hell or another Bucky. It's going to take time, but I'm confident that the two of you will get back to the friendship that you had before all of this, back when you were two soldiers fighting for your country. Or rather, you were fighting for your country and Steve was trying his damndest just to try and get them to let him enlist, even if he had to use some not so legal means to be able to do it."

Bucky laughed softly at that. "Wnat would I do without you doll?"

"I don't know, and quite frankly, I don't think that I want to know either."

"Anna." The Professor spoke up, cutting into their conversation. "Forgive me for interrupting, but Tony did not tell me a lot about you. Is there anything that you remember about your life before HYDRA?"

Anna bit her lip. "I'm afraid that I won't be much help to you there Professor. I don't remember anything about my life before HYDRA captured me, I don't even remember my parents anymore."

Xavier nodded thoughtfully, stroking his chin. "I wonder if there would be a way of restoring your memories….if you'd be up for it that is."

Remember her life before HYDRA? That would be wonderful, it would mean that she had actually _had_ a life before the terrorist group had captured and experimented on her. But then there was a little thought that tickled at the back of her brain. What if...as crazy as it might sound...but what if her life before HYDRA had actually been worse? She wasn't sure if she would be able to handle knowing that. But….she had to know, so she nodded her head. "If there's a way that I would be able to recover my memories of before HYDRA, that would be wonderful, thank you."

Xavier gave her a kind smile. "I'll have Hank help me, we'll see what we can come up with. Make yourself comfortable, it's going to be about an hour before we reach the school."

Anna did exactly as he suggested. She made herself comfortable in her seat, closed her eyes, and drifted away.

Anna slept comfortably until Bucky shook her awake. "We're here." He told her, a grin on his face. "This looks like a pretty amazing place, you're gonna love it here."

Anna blinked the sleep out of her eyes and gazed out the window, gasping softly. She saw a large stone building that almost resembled a castle. She could see kids on the grounds, some running around, others sitting under large shade trees. There was a basketball court, where a group of kids were playing a round.

"Everyone has been anticipating your arrival." Xavier told her as they pulled into a landing bay. "I let them know as soon as you told us that you would be coming back with us. The children especially are looking forward to meeting you, they always love to see new faces." He then turned to look at Bucky. "Many of the boys are wanting to meet you, I think that they're hoping that you'll teach them some combat moves."

Bucky gave him a small smile. "I'll see what I can do, I'm sure that I'll be able to teach them a thing or two."

"Splendid. Now, Storm will be showing you to your room, and when you're ready, you can join us in the cafeteria for dinner."

Bucky carried both of their bags, and they followed the white haired woman out of the bay and into the school. Kids of all ages turned to look at them, and Anna turned to look at the ground, her face a bright pink.

"You okay?" Bucky whispered to her, and Anna nodded her head. "I'm fine, I just don't like all of these people staring at me."

Bucky nodded slowly and he glared at the kids, who quickly turned away.

Soon enough they reached the room, and Storm opened the door for them. "You have an adjoining bathroom with a shower." She explained to them. "When you're ready, the cafeteria is down the stairs and to the right. After that, your nose should be able to guide you the rest of the way." She left the room, leaving the two in peace to clean up and unpack.

"This is a really nice room." Anna said as she sat down on the bed. It was a spacious room, the walls were painted a beige color, and there was a set of double doors that led out to a balcony. The bed was a queen size, big enough for the both of them to be able to sleep comfortably.

"I think that I'm going to take a shower before dinner." Anna grabbed a change of clothes out of her bag, and headed towards the bathroom.

"Mind if I join you?" Bucky teased her, and Anna froze in her tracks, her face a dark red in color. "Um..u-uh…." She stammered out, and Bucky laughed softly, walking over to her and planting a kiss on her nose. "You're adorable doll, you know that? I was only messing with you."

Anna's face was still red as she walked into the bathroom and closed the door. She hadn't really been embarrassed by what he had said...in fact...she actually wouldn't mind it if he did join her. Oh God….now she really was embarrassed. She shook her head, trying to clear those thoughts from her mind as she turned on the water. She stripped down, stepping under the hot water, and sighing softly as it cascaded down her skin. Her stomach grumbled, so she took a quick shower and then she got out and dried off, dressing and stepping back into the bedroom. Once more she froze, her face again darkening in color. Bucky was naked except for the boxers that he was wearing, and she found her eyes raking over his body, taking note of all of his sculpted muscles. His back was to her, and he didn't know that she was back in the bedroom until she cleared her throat. He laughed lightly as she looked at him. "Like what you see doll?"

Anna didn't answer him, and Bucky laughed again as he pulled a pair of jeans on and a t shirt. "Come on doll, let's get going before all of the food is gone."

With what she had just seen, Anna was quite certain that food would be the last thing on her mind for quite some time.


	13. Chapter 13

Despite her earlier thoughts, Anna was starving by the time that they reached the cafeteria. All sorts of smells greeted her nostrils, and they all smelled delicious, which wasn’t usually what school cafeterias smelled like. There were all sorts of foods, burgers, pizzas, lunch meat sandwiches, there was something that suited the taste of everyone. 

Bucky got himself a burger and french fries, while Anna got herself a couple of slices of pepperoni pizza. The big, black haired man that had come with Xavier to the Base, Logan, sat with them. Anna was kind of surprised by that, because she had gotten the idea that he was a loner, but then maybe he just didn’t want to sit with a bunch of kids, he didn’t really seem like the type of guy that would get along well with kids.

Logan was quiet the first few minutes that they ate before finally speaking up. “So you guys were both experimented on by that HYDRA group huh?”

Anna could feel Bucky stiffen beside her, and she put a hand on his knee to try and calm him down a bit. “Yeah, we were, it isn’t really something that we like to talk about though.”

“You can’t run from things, it’ll always catch up to you.” 

“We aren’t running away from anything.”

“If you weren’t running drom something, than why are you guys here?”

Well, he had her on that. Anna sighed a bit. “Bucky didn’t have to come here with me, he did it because he wanted to. I came here to make sure that HYDRA wouldn’t capture me again, Tony assured me that they didn’t know anything about this place.”

Logan shrugged his shoulders as he bit into his sandwich. “I know how groups like this operate, and in the end, they usually get what they want, and they kill anyone who gets in their way.” He stood up, and Anna bit her bottom lip as she looked at Bucky. “Do you think that he’s right? Have we put everyone in danger by coming her?”

Bucky’s flesh hand slipped into her own. “Don’t worry doll, no one here is going to get hurt.” He assured her. “They have just as much tech as Tony does, they’ll be able to see someone coming from miles away. And with all of these powered people here, HYDRA wouldn’t stand a chance, they would have to send dozens of men.”

Anna nodded, but she was still a bit worried. There were so many children here, if HYDRA were to invade, and were successful, she didn’t even want to think about what sorts of experiments that HYDRA would run on them.”

“That professor knows what he’s doing.” Bucky tried to further reassure her, and he has those weird mind reading abilities, he’ll be able to tell when danger is coming.” He moved his hand up to her shoulder, lightly squeezing it. “There’s some good people here, they’re going to make sure that you and the kids are kept safe, okay?”

“Okay.” Anna nodded her head. Bucky was right, everything would turn out fine, it had to.

Storm came up to them as they were about to finish eating. “Anna, I have a class that I teach tomorrow afternoon, they’re mostly made up of shapeshifters like yourself, and I was wondering if you could make an appearance, maybe give them some pointers about how to control their powers?”

“Oh!” Anna was surprised that Storm had asked for her help, and it made her blush a bit. “Sure, I’d love to!” She responded, causing the darker skinned woman to smile at her. “Awesome, the class starts at one, so do you think that you could meet me out near the basketball court around a quarter to one?”

“I’ll be there.”

Storm walked off, and Anna looked at Bucky. “Guess I’m helping to teach a class tomorrow.”

“Well you need something to keep you busy, God knows how much trouble you could get into bored.” Bucky teased her, laughing as Anna shoved his shoulder. “Oh shut up, we all know that you’re the real troublemaker here you know.”

“I’ll have you know that I’m a perfect angel.” It felt nice for Bucky to be able to joke around. At the Base, he had always felt so serious. Even when he was around Steve, things weren’t like how they used to be. Anna made him feel young again, made him forget for a little while that HYDRA had made him into some terrible monster. That was what Bucky saw himself as, a monster, someone that killed people with no remorse.

Anna noticed his mood change, and she frowned. “Hey…” She cupped his cheek, looking into his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.” Bucky shook his head. “It’s just...I feel like I have to be serious all of the damn time, but when I’m with you, it’s like I can just let myself go, that I can be myself when I’m around you. I love Steve to death, but we’ve both changed, and I think that he expects me to be the same man that I was in the forties.”

Anna shook her head. “You aren’t the same man, and I think that Steve knows that. He means well, he’s just trying to show that he doesn’t think any differently of you. You had been his friend in the forties, and you’re his friend now. You two have an unbreakable bond, and that kind of bond doesn’t come along every day, you know.”

Bucky smiled softly. “Have i ever told you that I don’t deserve you, doll?”

“All the time, and every time I tell you about what an idiot you’re being.” Anna kissed the tip of his nose. “Come on, why don’t we go for a walk, explore the school and its grounds?”

Anna took Bucky by the hand and they walked outside together. The grounds were beautiful, some of the bushes were trimmed in the shapes of various creatures, there was green grass as far as the eye could see. There was also a basketball court and a swimming pool. Anna wished that she had brought her swimsuit as they were supposed to have some fairly warm days ahead of them. 

She and Bucky laid down in the grass, just watching the white puffy clouds float by above them. Anna was laying with her head in Bucky’s lap, her eyes closing in content as she felt his fingers running through her hair, occasionally massaging her scalp.

“You keep doing that and I might just fall asleep.” Anna mumbled, yawning for added effect.

“I don’t mind if you do darling.” Bucky replied as he smiled down at her. “I don’t mind you doing anything, just so long as I get to hold you in my arms.”

“You’re really sappy, you know that?”

“I lived in a sappy era, so you can’t really blame me. The world could use a bit more sappiness right about now.”

“You have that right. Romance these days are all about sex. What people don’t realize is that love is so much more than that. Love just isn’t about physical pleasure, but emotional as well.”

Bucky pressed a kiss to Anna’s forehead. “You were born in the wrong generation doll.” If only things had been different, if Anna had been born the same time that he had, things could have turned out so much more differently. Maybe he wouldn’t have been so gung ho about joining the Army. He may have still been drafted, but he would have taken a much different path, HYDRA wouldn’t have captured him, maybe they could have even had a family. Bucky was worried about them having a family because if they did, then he was afraid that the kids would turn out like him, and that would make things so much harder for them. Bucky heard some light snoring and he looked down to see that Anna had fallen asleep in his lap. Smiling, he lifted the sleeping woman into his arms and he carried her back into the large stone building. Carrying her into their bedroom he laid her on the bed before crawling in beside her. 

“Sleep well, babydoll.” He whispered, pressing a final kiss to her head before snuggling close to her, his arms wrapping around her in a secure embrace before falling asleep himself.


	14. Chapter 14

The next afternoon, Anna and Bucky met Storm outside. "So what is it exactly that I'm supposed to be doing again?" Anna said as she looked around. They were a little bit early so none of the kids had shown up. 

"I want you to show them what you do." Storm explained. "A lot of the kids that are in my class are shapeshifters like you, some of the younger ones have a hard time controlling their powers, I was thinking that maybe you could talk about how  _ you  _ keep your powers under control." 

Anna snorted a bit. "I wouldn't say that I have them under control per se. When I'm angry or upset, there's no telling who I could turn into. I could turn into you, or I could turn into the damn Prime Minister for all that I know. There's just really no way to tell." 

When Anna shifted, she had to keep a completely clear mind, she couldn't be thinking about anything else other than the person that she was trying to shift into. If she got distracted, she could turn into someone else entirely, or she might have the face of the person and the body would be her own.

"You'll do great." Bucky assured her, and Anna sighed, biting her lip. "I really hope so." She muttered. 

  
  


The kids started to arrive for the lesson about fifteen minutes later, ranging in age from thirteen to sixteen.

"Everyone, I want you to welcome Anna and Bucky." Storm said. "They're on loan to us from the Avengers." 

"I've seen you on TV!" A fourteen years old girl said, pointing at Bucky. You're cool!"

Bucky chuckled softly. "Thanks, kid." He wasn't used to people actually liking him yet, considering his history with HYDRA, Anna couldn't really blame him for that. 

"Now, those of you who are shapeshifters, you're going to be going with Anna." Storm explained. "You're going to be going a bit more into depth about your abilities, and she's going to show you some of the ways that she keeps her powers under control." 

About a quarter of the kids went with Anna, while the rest remained with Bucky and Storm. Bucky gave Anna a reassuring smile, and she smiled in return before looking at the students. "As Storm said, I'm a shapeshifter, just like you guys. However, I wasn't born with my powers like you all. My powers were...given to me. But they're generally the same as your own, they work in the same way. I can turn into any person that I want to. So long as I know what they look like, I can change into them. Now, the hardest part of it all is learning how to control it. When I first got my powers, I had a really hard time controlling them.” Anna shook her head, pushing back memories of her ‘punishment’ that her handler had given her every time that she hadn’t been able to keep her powers under control. “Obviously, it’s easier for some than others. What you need to do is clear your mind, keep only the person that you are trying to change into in your mind. I found that meditation helped me a lot. Meditation might not work for each of you, you each need to find the thing that is able to keep you calm, the thing that helps you to think.”

“Like a patronus?” A boy of about fourteen asked. At Anna’s confused look he began to explain. “It’s from Harry Potter, it’s sort of like a guardian. In order to conjure one, you need to be thinking of your happiest memory.”

Anna thought about that for a moment. “I suppose that would work.” She agreed. She would have to remember to search up the whole patronus thing at a later time. “Now, I want you all to try and turn into me. Picture me in your mind, visualize yourself turning into me bit by bit.”

The end results were...interesting, to say the very least. A couple of them had managed to get the faces right, but their bodies were too tall, too short, etc. Others got the hair right, or the eyes, but nothing else.

Anna sighed inwardly. Was this how her handler felt when training her? Well, unlike her handler, she wasn’t going to abuse these kids simply because they hadn’t gotten something right. 

“You aren’t concentrating enough.” She tried to think of some way to help them. “Your minds are muddled, maybe they’re filled with doubt of your skills, maybe you aren’t confident enough, I don’t know. But here’s what I do know. You guys are all extremely talented, and I have complete faith that you can do it. It may take time, I know for sure that it’s going to take a lot of practice. It took me years before I was able to fully master it. For those of you that need a little extra, one-on-one help, I can help you in between classes. But for now, I think that we should call it a day.”

  
  


“So how did it go?” Bucky asked as he walked with Anna back towards the school, his flesh arm draped casually around her. He seemed to be a lot more at ease here now, which Anna was thankful for.

“Those kids are going to need to practice a lot, but they all hold a lot of promise.” Anna said, a smile on her lips. “A few of them are going to be needing some extra help, but given some time, I think that they’ll be able to master their powers. How did it go with you?”

“The kids loved me.” Bucky said, a sheepish smile on his face. It was clear that he hadn’t expected the kids to like him as much as they did. “There was this one kid who’s whole body can turn to metal, he and I arm wrestled. That’s probably the first time that I’ve ever lost to someone.”

Anna smiled as she listened to Bucky go on about the students. He was really seeming to enjoy it here, Anna had been worried that he would feel out of place. Well, she had also thought that she herself would feel out of place here, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

They entered the castle, and Anna looked up as Beast approached them. “Anna, the Professor was wondering if he could talk to you for a minute.” He said, and Anna nodded her head. “Of course, I’ll head over to his office now.” She turned to Bucky, standing on her tiptoes and giving him a kiss. “I’ll meet you in our room when I’m done, okay?”

Bucky nodded his head, squeezing her hand lightly. “Be careful, okay?” Even in this place, where they were supposedly safe, he still worried that something might happen to her. 

“You know me, I’m always careful.” Anna said with a light laugh before making her way to Xavier’s office, knocking lightly on the wooden door before walking in.

“Anna…” Xavier greeted her with that trademark warm smile of his. “Please come in. How are you settling in here? Storm told me that you assisted her with one of her classes today.”

“The class went wonderfully, the students are all such wonderful kids.”

Xavier nodded, and the smile that had been on his face had vanished. “I’m sorry that I must ruin the good day that you’ve had, but I have to be the bearer of bad news. I just heard from Tony, he said that the compound was once again infiltrated by HYDRA.”

“What?” Anna gasped and her face went pale. It would seem that she and Bucky had left in just the nick of time. “Is everyone alright? No one’s hurt are they?”

“No, nothing beyond some scratches and bruises. But unfortunately, Tony’s daughter Taylor, well...it would seem that HYDRA was able to capture her.”


	15. Chapter 15

Anna gasped, her face going an almost ashen color. Her legs felt ready to give way on her, and she had to sit down. Xavier gave her a glass of water, and Anna took a shaky sip. "Do they know where HYDRA took her?"

"No, but Tony's working on it as we speak. He also told me to ensure that you remain here, because he believes that they may use Taylor as a way of luring you in. If that is the case, then you must remain here."

"But I have to do something!" Anna cried out, now over the initial shock of things. If they had abducted Taylor, then I need to do something, I have to help save her!"

"Anna, I know that Taylor has a special place in your heart, but if they are indeed using Taylor as a way to get to you, then they'll kill her as soon as they have you in their clutches. Tony told me to use whatever means necessary to keep you here, and if that means using force to ensure that you remain here at the school, then that is precisely what I am going to do. I know that you may not like it, but we are doing it to ensure your safety-"

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation, and Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, entered the room. "Sorry to disturb you Professor, but one of the students found this on the front steps." He held up a yellow manila envelope. "It has Anna's name on it." Scott walked over to Anna, handing her the envelope. There was nothing on it to indicate who had sent it, but something told Anna that it had been sent from HYDRA. So much for them not knowing where the school was. Inside of the envelope was a black cell phone, and upon turning it on, Anna found that there was already a message waiting in the inbox.

It was a video, Taylor was tied down to a hospital bed with wires attached to her body. A woman in a white jacket appeared in front of the camera. "I'm sorry that it had to come to this Anna, but you ran away from us, you got one of our handlers killed, not to mention that you got numerous soldiers of ours killed as well, thanks to your precious little Avengers. And you know what happens to subjects that misbehave Anna, they get punished." She went over to a switch that was on the wall and flicked it.

Electricity started to course through the wires and into Taylor's body, and the girl began to scream and writhe in pain. Xavier noticeably winced and it took everything that Anna had to not break down into tears. The woman turned the electricity off after a few seconds, looking at the camera once more. "You've forced our hand here. A rendezvous point will be sent to your cell, and if you are not at that meeting place in forty-eight hours, then we will kill Taylor. It would be unfortunate to lose someone like her, with her abilities, but you clearly need to be taught a lesson. And if this does not teach you that lesson, then we are going to storm that school that you are currently residing in, and every man, woman, and child in that building will be killed. Now, you wouldn't want to be held responsible for the deaths of all of those children, would you? Like I said, forty-eight hours."

The video cut out, and Anna exchanged a look with Xavier. "Still think that I shouldn't do anything?"

  
  


"Anna, you can't possibly be thinking of giving yourself up to HYDRA!"

Anna had told Bucky about the video and her intentions of giving herself up to save Taylor, needless to say, he wasn't that happy about it. "Anna, they'll torture and kill you!"

"I don't have a choice, Bucky! If I don't go then they'll kill Taylor, and then they'll kill everyone in this school!"

"They could be bluffing!"

"That might be a risk that you're willing to take, but I'm not."

Bucky shook his head. "Why are you so hell-bent on getting yourself killed?"

"Bucky, I don't want to, but it's something that I have to do, I can't have Taylor die because of me." She took Bucky's flesh hand. "Bucky, you have to trust me on this, I doubt that Tony is going to be able to find her in the next two days. This will give Tony time, plus it'll keep them from hurting Taylor even more. I know that it isn’t ideal, but right now it's the only plan that we have."

Tony actually agreed to Anna's plan, to the surprise of both Anna and Bucky. "We can attach a tracker to you." Tony had arrived at the school, along with Bruce and Natasha. "If we put a tracker on you, then we can figure out where they take you, and that's probably where they're keeping Taylor as well."

"I can't believe that you're going through with this." Bucky growled. "They could kill her, brainwash her, and none of you even give a damn!"

"Bucky-" Anna started to say, reaching for him, but Bucky shook his head and stormed away.

"Just let him go." Tony said to Anna. "He'll come around eventually, he just doesn't like the idea of putting you in danger. We're doing the right thing, this is the fastest way of making sure that we find Taylor while also keeping you relatively safe."

"You'll be going to the rendezvous point by yourself." Natasha spoke up. "They might suspect that something's up if anyone shows up with you."

"They know that you're selfless enough to give yourself up for Taylor without a second thought." Bruce added. "They know that Taylor, that any of us, that we're your weakness."

"Guess that it's my fault for having so many weaknesses." Anna commented, and Tony put a hand on her shoulder. "It isn't a weakness to care about people," he told her. "That's what makes you human, it's what makes you different from the people in HYDRA."

Anna sighed softly. "But it's also what got Taylor into this mess."

"And I'm sure that Taylor doesn't blame you for anything that's happened. Now, we only have a couple of days to plan this out, so I suggest that we get to work."

For the next two days they planned, and for that entire time, Bucky ignored Anna. If she tried to talk to him, he would ignore her and walk the other way. Their bed felt incredibly empty without him in it with her, and for the past two days, her nights had been spent tossing and turning. Finally, the big day arrived, and Anna went out to a car that Xavier had agreed to supply her with. The tracker had been injected into her arm; it was tiny, practically invisible. Right before Anna got into the car, she glanced up at the school and saw Bucky staring at her through one of the windows before turning away, and Anna sighed before getting into the vehicle and driving away.


	16. Chapter 16

Anna was a nervous wreck as she drove towards the rendezvous point. She knew what could happen, knew what was going to happen. But if it meant that Taylor would no longer be harmed, then Anna was willing to face whatever HYDRA would make her go through.

The woman from the video met Anna at the rendezvous point. "Anna. I'm glad that you decided to listen to reason."

"Quit with the niceties." Anna replied in a cold voice. "Taylor's safety is all that I care about."

'And her safety will be guaranteed. We won't be letting her go, not with the powers that she has, but the methods that we will use to study her will be far less painful." The woman walked towards Anna, holding out a pair of high-tech handcuffs. "These will dampen your powers. Unnecessary, I know, since you are coming with us voluntarily, but there are protocols that we must follow after all." She snapped the handcuffs to Anna's wrists, and Anna immediately felt drained, tired.

"Fatigue is normal." The woman assured her. "The power that you are used to feeling in your body has been put into a dormant state, which results in fatigue." She led Anna into a waiting SUV, and Anna couldn't help the yawn that escaped from her mouth. The woman chuckled softly as she got into the driver's seat. "Rest, it'll be a few hours before we get there."

Anna didn't exactly have a choice in the matter, her eyes were already starting to close and within moments, she had fallen into a deep sleep. The woman pulled out her phone and dialed a number, waiting a few moments as it rang. "This is Agent Valerian, the target has been acquired, commence Project Delta."

  
  
  


When Anna woke up again, she was in a cell. The cuffs had been taken off of her, but now she had shackles around her ankles.

"The sleeping beauty awakens." A man was standing in front of the cell door, his accent sounded German, or close to it anyways. "We have much to discuss, but first, I am sure that you want to make sure that your friend is alright." He snapped his fingers and two guards appeared. They opened the cell, going over to Anna and removing her shackles before escorting her out of the cell. The German man waved them away. "We needn't worry about you running off. You wouldn't get very far, not to mention that the Stark girl would pay dearly for your mistake."

They walked to a cell at the end of the hall, and Anna peered into it. Sure enough, there laid Taylor. She looked battered and bruised, but she was alive, and that was what mattered. And they wouldn't be hurting Taylor anymore either, not as long as Anna did everything that they asked her to. And she knew that there was something that they needed her to do, some mission that they wanted her for, she just didn't know what it was yet.

A few moments later, the man pulled her away from the cell. "Come, there is much to discuss and not a lot of time to do so." He led her into a meeting room, and had her sit down in one of the black chairs at the long, wooden table. Several others were there as well, including the woman who had brought Anna to the facility, and she introduced herself as Agent Valerian to the girl. "Now, I'm sure that you're wondering what you're doing here, so I'll get right to it. You are needed for an extremely important mission. We're going to have you infiltrate the White House."

Anna raised an eyebrow. "Come again?"

"You are going to use your shapeshifting abilities to change into President George Johnson, and HYDRA will have control of the American government."

"I hate to ask this, but what are you going to do to the  _ actual  _ President? I can't exactly take his place if he's roaming as free as a bird now, can I?"

"Don't worry about that." Valerian told her. "We'll take care of that, you just focus on changing into him. And make sure that you do everything that we tell you to do, you know what the consequences are if you don't." They knew that the way to hurt Anna, to truly hurt her, was to hurt the people around her, the people that she held close. Anna could handle any sort of physical pain that they threw at her, but the emotional pain, knowing that someone else had been hurt because of something that she had done, that was something that she wouldn't be able to handle. HYDRA had Anna in the palm of their hand, and they knew it.

Once the meeting was over with, Anna was escorted back to her cell. One of the hardest parts of the mission would be catching the President in a vulnerable enough position so that they could deal with him and replace him with Anna. There was going to be a gala in a week, a charity event that was supposed to aid homeless LGBTQ+ youth. That would be the best time to infiltrate the United States' inner government circle. Anna would only have a week to prepare. She would need to practice turning into the man, as well as memorize information regarding his family and other close relations. His wife had died three years ago due to cancer. He had two children, a twenty-eight-year-old and an eighteen-year-old.

The twenty-eight-year-old, Danielle Johnson, was an extremely accomplished physician, and was currently on a three year tour with Doctors Without Borders. The eighteen-year-old, Devon Johnson, was currently enrolled at Stanford University, and was the school's star fencing athlete. Not a lot of people seemed to be interested in the sport these days, but there was no denying that the kid had talent with a blade. Devon would be at the gala, but since Danielle was currently stationed in Haiti, she would be unable to attend. One thing that hYDRA had not told Anna was that Tony Stark was also going to be in attendance. It could complicate things if Anna knew ahead of time, and HYDRA needed to make sure that she was entirely focused on the mission at hand. They couldn't afford to have any slip-ups, not when they were this close to achieving their goal. Having control of the United States government would be a major accomplishment for them. They already had various Senators and Congressmen and women in their pockets, whether it was by bribing them or using other means, such as threatening their families. Anna would wear special contacts so that Valerian could see everything that Anna saw, hear everything that she heard. There wouldn't be away for Anna to intentionally mess things up, not without them knowing. HYDRA would soon be in complete control of the United States, and that could spell disaster for the rest of the world.


	17. Chapter 17

Since Anna was behaving herself, HYDRA would let her visit Taylor from time to time. Anna had told Taylor about what she had to do, and Taylor didn't like it one little bit.

"Anna, you can't do this just to keep me safe." Taylor insisted as Anna read through the file that she had been given for what seemed like the millionth time, trying to memorize everything down to the tiniest detail.

"Taylor, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I had been able to do something to help you and didn't." Anna responded. "You were kidnapped to be used as leverage against me, that's already weighing on me, and I'm not going to be having anything else happen to you, not if I can help it."

"But Anna, if you do this, then HYDRA is going to be in control of the United States, and you know as well as I do that isn't going to end well, not for anyone. Please don't do this."

"Taylor, I have to. Who knows what could happen to you if I refuse. Not only would I not be able to live with myself, but Tony would never forgive me. The whole reason that I gave myself up in the first place was to keep you safe." Anna glanced at the camera that was in the corner of the room. "Everything will work out the way that it's supposed to, you'll see."

"But Anna-"

"Taylor, please." Anna said with a heavy sigh. "I need you to trust me on this, okay? Can you do that? Can you just....just trust me?"

Taylor stared at her for a moment. "Fine." She said eventually. "I'll trust you, that you know what you're doing. I just hope that this isn't something that you'll wind up living to regret."

"Me too." Anna said as she bit her lip, glancing once more at the camera. "Me too."

It was just a couple of days before everything was set to go down. Anna had completely memorized everything that had been in the file, they had used a simulator to run through every possible scenario with things that could go wrong, although Anna still hadn't been told that Tony Stark would be at the event. She had just been about to fall asleep when alarms started to blare, and she quickly sat up, looking around. She could hear soldiers shouting and she got up, walking to her cell door to try and see what the hell was going on. The soldiers were speaking in another language, but there was one word that Anna had been able to understand with complete and total clarity:  _ Avengers _ .

Tony had managed to find them then, the plan was working. Anna smiled to herself, hopefully they wouldn't have too hard of a time finding the cell block, soon she would be able to go home and she would get to see Bucky again-

_ Bucky _ ...would he even want to see her? He had been so angry at her when she had left, Anna wouldn't be surprised if he didn't even want anything to do with her at this point. She heard gunshots and a loud roar that could have only come from the Hulk.

A few minutes later, Natasha appeared at her door. "Anna, hey, we're gonna get you out of here."

"What about Taylor?" Anna asked her urgently. This had always been about Taylor, and Anna needed to make sure that her friend was safe.

"Tony's got her, she's safe, don't worry."

" _ Aufhören!" _ A dozen guards had entered the cell block. Natasha muttered something into her earpiece, but the response that she had gotten was not the one that she had wanted to hear and she groaned in frustration. "Anna..." She looked at Anna with a sorrowful expression on her face. "I'm sorry." Without another word she turned and ran, fighting the guards and leading them away from the cell. Anna felt her heart sinking deep into her stomach. Natasha had left her there...she was a super-assassin, she would have been able to take those guards on, but instead, she had just left her there.

  
  


Valerian seemed surprised to see that Anna still remained in her cell. "I thought for sure that they would have taken you with them." She commented. The Avengers had managed to escape the building, with Taylor in tow.

Anna shrugged her shoulders. "Guess that I wasn't important enough to be saved." Her tone was nonchalant, but inside, she was breaking, and Valerian seemed to know this.

"That's Stark for you." She sighed as she shook her head. "He and those other Avengers don't care about anyone but themselves, I'm sorry to say. If it doesn't benefit them, then they couldn't give a damn."

Now, under normal circumstances, Anna wouldn't believe a word of this, but the shock that she was feeling at being left behind, the grief, it was all too much for her. She had done this to keep Tony's daughter safe, and this was how he repaid her? By leaving her here to rot?"

"What's going through that head of yours?" Valerian asked as she entered Anna's cell. She sat down on the cot, motioning for Anna to join her on the bed. 

"I just...I can't believe that they just left me here." Anna weakly sat down on the cot beside the HYDRA woman. "I thought that I meant more to them then that."

Valerian patted Anna on the shoulder. "I'm sorry that you had to learn the truth in such a painful manner, but I also feel that you wouldn't have learned any other way. I am sorry, I know that it must really hurt to be betrayed by a group of people that you had felt so close to. But Anna, now you see. Tony Stark and the rest of those Avengers couldn't give a damn about someone like you. But myself and the others here at HYDRA, we see the potential that you have, we actually care about you. If you don't fight us, if you don't resist us, then you can have a wonderful life here with us. You wouldn't be put in a cell, you would have a comfortable bedroom, you would have free roam of the facility, all that you need to do is to pledge allegiance to us. Think about it. We could give you the world. What have the Avengers ever done besides get your trust and then break it? Break  _ you _ ? You know, Barnes wasn't with the Avengers when they infiltrated this facility. You would think that if he cared about you like you seemed to think that he did, he would have been here, that he would have been the one to try and break you out."

She was right about that, Bucky hadn't been there on the mission. Maybe he really didn't care as much as she thought that he did, maybe none of them cared about her. Anna bit her quivering lower lip as tears filled her eyes. Valerian shook her head, quickly wiping Anna's tears away. "Come now dear, there's no need for you to cry. You see the truth now, you're wiser because of it. So what do you say? Do you want to join us? There are no tricks, we wouldn't force you to do anything. Pledge allegiance to HYDRA, and I promise that the people that have hurt you will pay for it tenfold."

Anna took a deep breath and closed her eyes and all was silent for a moment. When her eyes opened again, there was no emotion in them and there was almost something....something dark. She looked at Valerian and smiled a bit. "Hail HYDRA."


	18. Chapter 18

"I could have gotten her out." Natasha had gone straight to Tony as soon as they had come home from the mission. She was fuming, and you couldn't exactly blame her. "Those guards wouldn't have been a problem, you know damn well that I could have taken them down without a problem, so why the hell did you order me to leave her behind?"

"Relax Nat." Tony had his hands raised up in defense. "I had a reason for doing what I did."

"It better be a damn good reason then, because if it isn't, then I'm going to beat you senseless."

"Nat, right now HYDRA thinks that they've won. Their end game was always Anna, they couldn't give a damn about Taylor. Yes, she would have been a bonus to them, but she isn't their endgame, Anna is." Tony knew that he was seeming cold-hearted at the moment, but they had to think ten steps ahead here. "They wanted Anna for something big. I don't know what that something is yet, but as soon as Bruce is done with Taylor's medical check, I'm going to talk to her. She may know what they wanted Anna to do, and if we get them in the middle of the operation, then we may be able to get a few agents, maybe even capture a few of their higher-ups, such as Agent Valerian."

The Avengers had had trouble with the skilled HYDRA agent before, and she had always managed to escape their grasp. She had almost killed Pepper once, and when that happened, Tony vowed that he would get her if the was the last thing that he did.

At that moment Bruce joined them. "Taylor should come out of this alright." He told the two of them. "She'll have a few weeks of recovery though, HYDRA did a number on her, and I think that if Anna hadn't given herself up, it would have been a lot worse for her."

"Bruce, back me up here." Tony gestured to Natasha. "She seems to think that I was crazy for having left Anna behind, try to make her understand that in the endgame, this will work out for everyone involved."

Bruce sighed, taking off his glasses and wiping them clean with the hem of his purple shirt. "Actually, I'm going to have to side with Natasha on this one."

"What?" Natasha and Tony were both surprised by this, clearly, they had both thought that Bruce would be on Tony's side for this.

"Tony, Anna was already emotionally and mentally damaged when we first saved her from HYDRA." Bruce explained. "We were the first people that she had trusted in God only knows how long. And now, you had a chance to save her, to bring her home. She saw Natasha, she thought that Natasha was going to save her, but then you made Natasha pull back. I'm certain that shattered Anna, and it probably shattered the trust that she had placed in us. I don't know exactly how that will affect her, but it certainly didn't do her any good. She may not trust anyone again. Hell, she may even do exactly what HYDRA asks of her because she just doesn't see any point in resisting them anymore. She resisted them for years because she always held out the hope that someone would come to save her, and then the people that did save her left her behind the second time."

Tony bit his lower lip, he was seriously starting to doubt his decision. Maybe he had made the wrong one, but it was too late now. "Is Taylor still awake?"

"Yes, but Tony, don't question her too much, she needs to rest, and whatever you do, don't tell her about Anna, that won't help her condition any, if anything, it would only make her condition worse. Tony, whatever your plan is...I pray that it works, for Anna's sake."

Bruce walked away, and Tony exchanged a look with Natasha. He hoped that Anna was strong, they needed her to be strong if this was going to work.

  
  


Bruce had been right about Anna. Her trust in the Avengers had been totally shattered, and her trust in Bucky even more so. He hadn't even been there during the rescue mission, which made her believe that he was still mad at her about what she had decided to do. Fine then. She didn't need Bucky. She didn't need any of the Avengers. She was a member of HYDRA now, willingly this time. Naturally, Valerian was delighted about this, because it meant that they wouldn't have to force Anna or bribe her with anything, things would be going so much more smoothly.

Because Anna made no attempts to escape and showed that she was putting her all into this mission, she was moved out of her cell. She still remained in the facility, but now she had much more comfortable living quarters. She had a large bedroom with a queen-sized bed, an adjoining bathroom, and a living room with a flat-screen tv and other means of entertainment for her to spend her spare time with. She ate her meals in the cafeteria with the rest of the HYDRA agents, usually eating her meals with Valerian, who seemed to be the only one that the girl seemed to trust at this point.

Valerian definitely wasn't complaining about this, she was quickly turning Anna into her little protégé.

Finally, it was the day before the mission was set to take place. This time Valerian was eating with Anna in Anna's quarters so that they could speak privately with each other. "Are you sure that you're ready for this mission?"

Anna nodded her head. "Yes. I've memorized everything that's in the file. I'm more then ready."

"Excellent. There is something else that I must inform you about though. My colleagues didn't think it wise that I tell you this, but I think that you need to know so that you can fully prepare. Tony Stark is going to be at the gala." 

Anna scowled upon hearing this new information. "Of course he is. Honestly, I should have expected this. Why didn't they want you to tell me this?"

"They thought that you might try to get Tony to help you escape. I assured them that you no longer want anything to do with Tony Stark."

"You're damn right about that. The next time that I see him, I might just try and kill him."

"As much as I appreciate your enthusiasm, taking your revenge on Stark will have to wait until a later time. Anna, you must be completely focused on this mission."

"Don't worry, I'm completely focused." Anna assured her. "No one is going to know what hit them."

Anna could be a dangerous person when her anger had been riled up, and right now, it was definitely riled up. Anna was a force to be reckoned with at the moment, and it would take a lot to bring her down. Anna wasn't going to go down without a fight. Anna was a smart and determined woman, making her a dangerous force to be reckoned with, and her enemies, they had better watch out.


	19. Chapter 19

Anna was silent on the car ride to the gala. When Valerian asked her if she was okay, Anna nodded her head, simply stating that she was trying to keep focused on the task at hand. When they arrived, they had only ten minutes before people would start to become suspicious, because HYDRA had already managed to secure the actual President, and it wouldn't be long before people would begin to wonder where he had gone. It was then that the plan started to go to complete shit. Anna heard the small bomb before she felt it go off. It was right under the car, causing it to flip multiple times before finally landing on its side.

Anna groaned, blood trickling down her face. What the hell had happened? Had the Avengers realized what their plan was? Apparently, as Steve ripped the car door open. "Anna, it's okay, you're safe-"

"Don't you touch me!" She growled at him, causing Steve to look at her in surprise. 

"She isn't the same Anna that you left behind." Valerian said, chuckling before she started to cough, blood spurting out of her mouth. "She belongs to HYDRA now. And she willingly joined us too, so thank you for leaving her behind so readily."

"I don't, we didn't-" Steve shook his head wildly. "Anna, we didn't want to leave you behind, Tony had us do it, he had a plan-"

"Oh, screw Tony and his bullshit plans!" Anna snapped. "All that Tony cares about, all that he's ever cared about, is himself and how things can benefit himself. He doesn't care about you, and he sure as hell doesn't care about me. If he did, then he wouldn't have left me to rot in that cell. He came for Taylor, not for anything else. I was a pawn for him. That's all that I ever was. Well, not anymore."

It was clear that what had happened had deeply affected Anna, more than Tony thought that it would have, and Steve sighed softly. "Fine, guess that we're doing this the hard way then. I'm really sorry Anna." Steve reared his fist back, and Anna's world went black. 

  
  


When Anna next woke up, she was in one of the cells that were underneath the compound that Tony used to house the mutant inmates. Apparently, he wasn't going to be taking any chances with her. 

"And so the sleeping beauty awakens." Tony was standing outside of her cell, arms folded across his chest. "About time."

Anna didn't answer him. She sat up, grimacing as she rubbed her head. Steve's hit on her had left her with a hell of a headache, and she was sure that wherever he had hit her was probably bruised good too.

"You can quit with the act now." Tony continued. "Whatever your plan was, to make HYDRA think that you were on their side, it can stop."

"It wasn't an act." Anna retorted. This quite clearly surprised Tony but he tried not to show it. "Oh come on now, Anna. You can't honestly make me believe that you would willingly side with them, not after everything that they've done to you."

"Well what the hell was I supposed to do, Stark? The people that were supposed to keep me safe, the people that I thought I could trust, they abandoned me, left me for dead. Turns out that there's no one in this world that I can trust, is there?"

Bruce's words rang in Tony's head  _ 'You made Natasha pull back. I'm certain that shattered Anna, and it probably shattered the trust that she had placed in us.' _

"Anna, I had a plan-"

"Oh yes, the great Tony Stark always has a plan, doesn't he?" Anna sneered. "Well, I hate to break it to you, but sometimes plans just don't work out. Funny how life works out like that, huh?" Anna turned away from Tony and faced the wall, indicating that the conversation was over. 

Tony didn't push it. He walked away, running a hand through his dark hair that was starting to get streaks of grey in it. He knew that he had messed up majorly, and he wasn't all that sure how he could fix it.

  
  


This sullen, cold version of Anna was a version of her that none of them liked, Bucky and Taylor least of all.

"He should have let me go on that mission." Bucky was with Taylor in her room, they were both mighty pissed off at Tony, and Taylor hadn't said more than a word to her father in days. 

"I don't know what he was thinking." Taylor said as she shook her head. "I mean, what the hell was he even hoping that he would accomplish with this? So what if we had found out a little bit more about HYDRA? It wasn't worth the safety of Anna, and now look what's happened. Anna's pledged her loyalty to HYDRA. She's a completely different person then the one that we know."

"I should have never let her go." Bucky was staring out Taylor's window, a deeply troubled look on his face. "I shouldn't have let her leave the school. I should have tried to stop her."

"Bucky, it isn't your fault." Taylor got up and walked over to Bucky, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You couldn't have stopped her, not even if you wanted to. You know how stubborn Anna can be, and when she has her mind set on something, she sees it through to the end."

Bucky nodded his head, but he still felt guilty about it. Don't get him wrong, he was glad that Taylor was safe, but look at what it had done to Anna. He could have gone on the mission, he could have rescued Anna, but Tony had forbid him from going, said that they couldn't risk HYDRA capturing him again. 

"Maybe there's still a way that you can help her." Taylor said thoughtfully, and Bucky looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, she's brainwashed in a way, isn't she? Maybe if she sees you, if you talk to her, then you can get through to her, get our Anna back."

"Do you really think that would work?"

"I don't know, but it's definitely worth a try, isn't it? It's not like things can get any worse from here."

Bucky had to admit that she had a point. It beat sitting around here and doing nothing but blaming himself. "Alright." He told her. "It's worth a shot."


	20. Chapter 20

Warning: one use of strong language in this chapter

Bucky walked with Taylor down to the cellblock, rubbing his hands together nervously. What if this didn't work? What if the Anna that they knew was gone forever? 

"Don't worry." Taylor told him as they rode the elevator downwards. "If there's anyone that can bring Anna back, it's you." She seemed to have full faith in Bucky's abilities. Bucky, however, did not. He had been so terrible to Anna before things went down, he hadn't even talked to her, all because he had been mad. He hadn't been mad at Anna, rather he had been mad at the fact that he hadn't been able to find another way out of the situation. He was a super-soldier, he was supposed to be able to do anything, yet he wasn't able to keep the woman that he loved safe.

Anna sneered at the two as they approached her cell. "What, did Stark send the two of you down here? Did he think that you would be able to bring the 'old' me back? Well, I hate to break it to you, actually, no I don't. The old Anna is gone, thanks to you guys, and she's never going to be coming back."

"Anna..." Bucky swallowed thickly, trying to push back the guilt that was threatening to consume him. "Anna, I'm so sorry."

Anna scoffed, shaking her head. "Sorry isn't going to cut it, Barnes." For a brief moment, the cold, hard look that was on her face softened before quickly returning back to its steely glare. "I needed you, I needed you to support me, and you weren't there. You weren't even there when they came to break Stark Jr out."

"Anna, I wanted to be, but Tony thought that it would be too risky for me to be in a HYDRA facility-"

"Since when have you ever let Stark dictate what you do? I _needed_ you Bucky, I needed you to be there, and you weren't. You weren't there and that was what broke me. It wasn't the fact that the others didn't try and get me out. Hell, not even Romanoff looking right at me before hightailing it the other way hurt as bad as that."

"Anna..." It was Taylor that spoke now. "We didn't want to leave you, I tried to get Dad to change his mind, but he thought that this was the only way."

"Taylor, you know as well as I do that when Tony makes a plan, he doesn't always take into consideration how the end results will affect those around him."

Taylor went to retort, but she didn't say anything, mostly because she knew that Anna was right. When Tony came up with a plan, it got the job done, but sometimes it affected people in ways that he hadn't taken into consideration, and it usually took Taylor or Pepper to get him to see the whole picture. 

"I think that you should go." Anna continued, her voice stiff. "Just go and tell Tony that his little plan of trying to redeem me didn't work."

"Um, actually...Dad doesn't know that we're here." Taylor admitted. "We didn't tell anyone that we were coming down here, I was worried that Dad might try and stop us, say that it was too dangerous or something like that."

Anna chuckled a bit at that. "He always was super protective over you."

"To the point that it was just plain ridiculous."

The two girls laughed at that, and the old Anna surfaced momentarily. Anna sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Guys I just...I can't trust anyone anymore, you know? My trust in people has been shattered far too many times now."

"Anna, what we did was wrong, and I admit that." Bucky said, his voice breaking just a bit. "But please, we need you back, _I_ need you back. I know that I made a huge mistake, but please, I'm begging you for another chance. I promise that I won't, that none of us will break you again. I don't care what it takes for it to happen, hell, the two of us can spend the rest of our days on some remote island if that's what it takes, but I swear to God that no one is going to hurt you ever again, I'll kill the next person that does, even if it's Tony."

Anna bit her lip and she looked down at the ground. "People have made promises like that to me before and they've broken them."

"But I'm not like most people, and you know that. When I make a promise, I keep it, no matter what it takes."

Anna sighed. "Bucky, I...I don't know. I want to trust you, I do..."

"Look, I get that you're wary of this. Let's just take this one day at a time, okay? I can go and tell Tony that you aren't a threat anymore, we can get you out of this cell." 

Anna didn't say anything, and Bucky decided to take this as an affirmation from her about it. "Okay, I'll go and talk to Tony, I'll be back as soon as I can, okay?" Bucky motioned to Taylor and they both left. Bucky didn't know what Tony would say, but he just hoped that the Stark would agree to letting Anna out.

When Bucky explained things to Tony, the billionaire was a bit skeptical about letting Anna out so soon. "How do we know that she won't run right back to HYDRA?"

"Tony, she's a broken woman, and need I remind you that we wouldn't even have to be considering this if you had saved her when you saved Taylor."

"You think I don't know that?" Tony snapped at Bucky, and Bucky raised an eyebrow in surprise, apparently, this had hit Tony a bit harder than he let on.

Tony wasn't done though. "You think that I haven't gone through that day in my mind, over and over again, chastising myself, telling myself things that I could have done differently, that I should have done differently? I know that I fucked up, Barnes, I know, okay? So there's no need to rub it in my face." Tony started to walk towards the door. "Go ahead and let her out, but if she runs back to HYDRA, then it's on your head."


End file.
